Huntington Beach State Park S.C.

I arrived in Huntington Beach State Park in the late afternoon. After registering at the camper's office, we went to our campsite to get familiar with our surroundings. Now the good stuff, exploring Huntington Beach. There was a strong wind blowing off the ocean. As you can see the beach was mostly empty, except for a loan fishermen and a few walkers. Jellyfish of several types, large and small washed onto the beach. The one above still had it's stingers attached. Pretty Girl looking at the ocean and you can see how strong the wind was from her ears being blown back

After checking the beach out we wandered down to the lagoon. High tide was at 9:14 PM that evening, so the water level of the lagoon was rising. The sandpipers were getting their evening meal. The Snowy Egret Breeding Plumage below is also getting that evening meal but he is a runner and fun to watch. The sandpipers are a step and pick where the egret is a run and capture feeder.

In the middle picture above is another long-legged wader this one is a little blue heron. From the causeway a view of the lagoon. Below you see an alligator waiting for food to come through the pipe as the tide rises. And the young visitor pointing at the alligator. There were rabbits everywhere.

After spending the evening at the lagoon we headed back to camp for dinner. The campsite being in the woods, and all the trees acting as a wind block the mosquitoes were vicious. All of my camping trips in the last six months were in cooler weather, and I was not prepared for the mosquitoes. I started a campfire and it helped a little bit. About the time we finished dinner the wind picked up and gave us some mosquito relief. The wind was from a thunderstorm and it was coming in fast. My neighbors as well as myself prepared for the worst, I climbed into my truck and downloaded pictures while it was raining

The rain didn't last very long. But the thunderstorm had just moved off the coast. I went to the beach to watch the storm and maybe get a few pictures. It was just after high tide so the beach was narrow. I set up my camera and tripod to capture the storm. The sand fleas covered me in a short period, finally I couldn't take it any longer. The first two pictures above are from the beach the second two were taking from the parking lot at the beach. Earlier in the day this tree caught my attention because of its shape. But with the storm behind the tree I couldn't resist taking a few more shots. While I was there some fellow campers drove to the beach to see the storm. That last picture I had snapped it as they drove into the parking lot, and my shutter was open you can see the results.

I settled into bed after midnight. The mosquitoes were so bad that I put Pretty Girl into the cab of the truck. I had my summer sleeping bag but it was hot inside that bag. I had no choice but to be inside the mosquitoes were collecting protein and I was trying to keep all of mind. I know there are fresh mosquitoes there now from my involuntary donations. I didn't sleep very much that night so at the first sign of light I got up. I headed back to the beach to catch the sun coming up over the ocean. In the first picture another sandpiper getting breakfast. The next three pictures are of the sunrise.