Poinsett State Park

What a relief. Finally, we found a state park with decent hiking that is within an hour of home. We had become accustomed to having to drive for hours up I-26 or I-77 to hit some interesting trails. But today we found Poinsett State Park. The park features more than 1,000 acres of hills, swamps, ponds, and more.

When Tricia and I first pulled up at 8:45 it was very chilly to say the least. The ground had a nice crunchiness to it as we made our way over the fallen leaves and pine straw to the ranger's office. It was closed but fortunately there was a very nice man who went around the back to another door so that he could unlock the office for me. I grabbed a trail map and off we headed.

Our first trail was the Coquina Nature Trail. This trail makes its way around Old Levi's Mill Pond and gets its name, coquina, from the limestone made up of broken sea shells. Many of the buildings and other structures in the park were made of coquina. This work was done in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.



The trail was very shaded and full of loblollies and Spanish moss. In fact, the whole forest was covered in Spanish moss. Pretty eerie, really.

From this trail we jumped onto the Laurel Group Trail. It was an out and back with a short switch back. Along the way we saw a few squirrels and a few deer tracks but that was about it. The park is home to 40 different species of snakes - as well as alligators - but we didn't see any of them.

Thinking we were going to do eight miles today, we hit the end of the Laurel Group Trail and definitely did not feel as though we had hiked four miles yet. So we crossed the road leading into the park and found the continuation of the Palmetto Trail. The Palmetto Trail is planned to be a 400+ mile trail that runs from the northwest corner of the state, in Oconee State Park, all the way to the sea, just above Charleston. The trail has been an ongoing project for more than ten years. As of today they have secured and completed a little more than 250 miles.

I cannot imagine hiking the whole Palmetto Trail. We did just a few miles and found numerous spots where the trail was not clearly marked and/or obstructed by a lot of downed trees and overturned soil. Still, it was fun to see a bit of this ambitious trail. Despite its problems, if the Palmetto Trail ever gets completed I'd be up for trying to do it. It'd be fun to walk the width of the state and see everything from mountains to cities to swamps to beaches.

After a little less than two hours of hiking we turned back. The sun was getting high in the sky and we were actually beginning to get a little hot. We made our way back to the ranger office, had lunch by the pond,and watched a heron hanging out at the water's edge.

We did a bit more hiking after lunch on the Scout Trail. This trail was about as exciting as it sounds (it ultimately led to the scout camping area)but allowed us to push our mileage up closer to our goal of eight miles.

Poinsett is a lovely little park. The only drawback is that it is located right next to a bombing range. Driving in to the park you pass many signs warning you not to trespass for fear of being injured by the "air-to-ground bombs" being dropped. All day long we heard military aircraft flying back and forth over our heads despite the fact we couldn't see any of them. It sounded, in a way, like the black smoke monster in Lost.

We've now hiked in five or six of the state parks here in South Carolina. It occurred to me that it might be fun to try to visit all of them. Given the completely reasonable charge of $2 for adults (and children are free) it certainly is a cost-effective source of entertainment!