It was unexplainably hot in Charleston last weekend, but rather than heading out to our usual spots, we decided to make the day of it and drive an hour south to Edisto Island to check out Botany Bay. I still can’t believe we waited this long to come here. If you haven’t made the trip down here yourself, I highly recommend it. Since Botany Bay is a wildlife preservation area, nothing has been removed or altered from the mother nature’s design of this beach. (Well with the exception of some seashell “cairns” left behind from past beach goers). So there is so much to see and explore on the beach versus. Check out the Youtube video for a quick glance into our trip and to see tons of footage of Liam running along the shore with shovel. He was trying to put all the sand back into the ocean. We didn’t have the heart to tell him that his plan was a failure.
Tips for traveling out to Botany Bay:
- Check the tides! Due to erosion, the beach is only accessible about three hours before and three hours after dead low tide. So if you show up at high tide, you will be quite disappointed. The day of our trip, low tide was at 8:23 am. We left Charleston at 8:00, arrived a little after 9:00 and stayed on the beach until 11ish with plenty of shore for walking and exploring.
- Entry and parking are free but you do have to stop and get a pass at the entrance.
- Removing shells from the beach is prohibited and DNR volunteers monitor the entrance so be cool and don’t take shells home with you.
- You might think there is only a beach here, but actually Botany Bay has a 6 mile driving tour along a dirt road, past ponds with alligators and the remains of old plantation homes. Save some extra time (No more than an hour) to do the driving tour. Click here for more info on the driving tour.
- Bring sunscreen. Even if it’s February. Sounds obvious and you’d think at 35 years of age we would know these things.
So that’s Botany Bay in a nutshell… or summed up in one YouTube video and one one poorly written blog post. hehe! May all your weekends be full of sunshine, cool breezes, and toddlers running along the beach. xx Priscilla
