Bulls Island – SC

October 9, 2020

Mike and I

South Carolina has more barrier islands than any other state Except Florida. Some are developed most are not. Bulls Island is part of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. The only way to visit is by boat. Coastal expeditions is the only service contracted to take people. They make 2 trips per day.

It’s a 30 minute boat ride for $40 per person. It goes through the marsh, across the inter coastal waterway to the island. We saw dolphins along the way.

Most people get off the boat and make the 1.5 mile trip across the island for the beach and hangout and hunt for shells. That’s what the driver recommends partly because the mosquitos are horrible on the interior and it’s hot.

On the way anywhere on this island is a nice maintained pathways over man made levies. Though the marsh areas are lots of alligators. We saw mostly babies on the way to the beach.

We decided to go straight to Boneyard beach because high tide was coming. When its high tide most of the trees are in the water and the shore left isn’t walkable. It was about another mile down the beach and about a mile long. It was pretty cool. No one was coming this far so we had it all to ourselves. As the tide came in we were bush wacking on the beach. 😁 Climbing over trees and piles of driftwood. We were trying to reach north beach by walking the beach.

The boneyard is lots of petrified live oaks and palm trees. Our driver said they are naturally occurring on the island mainly due to erosion and not from a hurricane. There were a lot of them.

We climbed up to the trail here and took it to the North beach. This is right at the entrance to Bulls Bay. We had lunch here then started back. I saw an animal track in the sand. I sent it to a friend and he said definitely a coyote. The driver said there were lots of animals on the island like coyote, bobcats, deer. I thought it was just birds and gators. I mean how’s a coyote get to an island?

On the way back we turned on the trail called AlligatorAlley. It was so cool. It was a man made levy at least a mile long that went between a swamp on one side and pools of fresh water on the other.

It had lots of birds and lots of big alligators sunning themselves on the banks. Our boat driver said if they won’t move just walk around them because they know humans are the biggest baddest thing on the island! Well none got in our way but hearing a big alligator a couple feet from you turn around and jump In the water sure will make your heart stop! Some of them were prob 10 ft long.

It was super cool winding through here. The driver didn’t recommend it but glad we didn’t listen. This trail intersected with the lighthouse trail. We have been about 7 miles and I was getting tired. It’s hot on the interior. We followed the lighthouse trail back to Big Pond road and took it towards the beach. We walked the beach back to where we started and hung out a bit. Sooooo much cooler by the ocean.

Then we took the 1.5 mile trek back to the boat dock. The last boat leaves at 4. Our boat left at 2 but since there weren’t many people booked he said we could take the other boat back. We’ve been here 6 1/2 hours. We could of explored more if we had the time or energy! Two guys brought bikes but they aren’t allowed on the beach so I don’t think I like that option. All in all I think we walked 10 miles.

Well can’t leave Charleston without eating something. They have the best places to eat. But a friend recommended TW Graham’s in the small town of Mclellanville SC so we went there. It was awesome! Only thing left was to stay awake for the 3 hour ride home.