Discovering this idyllic place, we find ourselves filled with a yearning to linger here, where time stands still and beauty overwhelms.

~Anonymous

Salt marsh at sunset (click photos to enlarge)

Another report on my recent trip to the South Carolina Lowcountry…after looking for dolphins on the boat charter and enjoying some of the fine dining to be found in Charleston, it was off to Edisto Beach State Park for a couple of days of exploring and relaxing.

Cabbage Palmetto leaves make interesting patterns as the sun sets

Edisto Beach State Park has a great interpretive center and nice hiking trails. The campground and cabin area are located adjacent to a salt marsh with beautiful woods along the shoreline. Sitting on the screen porch and watching the sun slowly sink over the marsh was a great way to relax. Two Great Horned Owls called in the distance.

Cabbage Palm leaf patterns

The low angle golden light cast beams and shadows on the vegetation making the woods seem like a gallery showcasing an artist that specialized in abstracts of green stained glass.

The tree-lined road into Botany Bay

One of the places I wanted to visit was one friends simply called Botany Bay. I had thought it was part of Edisto Beach Sate Park. But, it turns out its more official name is Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve/Wildlife Management Area and it lies a few miles down the road from the state park. And, as I found out, you need to do a little homework before visiting as it is regularly closed to the public on many days in the Fall for scheduled gun deer hunts. Luckily, one of the days I was in the area was a Sunday, and there are no hunts scheduled for Sundays. The two mile dirt road into Botany Bay is gorgeous, with huge Live Oaks draped with Spanish Moss forming a sun-dappled tunnel.

Live Oak festooned with Spanish Moss

The trees are so beautiful you want to stop and just stare up toward the sky

I found myself driving very slow and stopping periodically just to look up and try to take it all in. This is quintessential Lowcountry – dark twisting branches of Live Oaks, some heavily cloaked with the gray clumps of Spanish Moss. Volunteers greet you on busy days and provide a map to the self-guided auto tour route. But I headed straight for a place I had heard about that can be a photographers delight, under the right conditions – the beach at Botany Bay.

Dead trees provide stark subjects for photography along the beach at Botany Bay

I have seen images from many wonderful photographers taken along the so-called Boneyard Beach of Botany Bay at sunrise. Unfortunately, the tide gods did not cooperate on this, my first visit to this area, as it was a time of extremely high tides at, you guessed it, sunrise. Park staff had said it was unlikely that the beach would even exist at high tide, and, from the looks of things, they had been right. So, waiting for the tide to start dropping also meant the sun was rising higher in the sky, making for some harsh lighting.

Dead trees reach to the ocean at Botany Bay

Boneyard Beach as the tide is dropping

I will definitely make a return trip to this unique beach for a sunrise visit at mid-tide, hopefully with a few clouds to liven things up.

A butterfly caught my eye walking back through the salt marsh at Botany Bay

The trail out to the beach passes through a salt marsh and some maritime forest and can be a great place to see birds, reptiles, crabs, and other coastal critters. I had hoped to see migrating Monarch Butterflies, as this is usually a great time of year to see them along the North Carolina coast. But, nary a Monarch in sight, although some other butterflies did their best to make up for that.

Buckeye basking on a marsh grass stem

What looked like a freshly emerged Buckeye caught my eye as it rested on a swaying Spartina stem along the path. It finally opened its wings to catch some of the warm sun, displaying its boldly patterned wings for a quick image.

Gulf Frittilary

But the star of the insect world on this trip were hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of Gulf Frittilary butterflies flying everywhere along the coast.

The undersides of the wings are covered in silvery spots

I think some people may mistake these orange and black beauties for Monarch Butterflies in the fall, as they, too, undergo mass migrations, especially on the coast. But Gulf Frittilaries are a bit more elongate in their wing shape, and have distinctive silvery spots on the underside of their wings. In North Carolina, this species is resident mainly along the southeastern coast, and then exhibits some inland and southward migration in late summer. Larval food plants are various species of Passionflowers. This must have been a very good year for this species as everywhere I went along the coast, they were abundant.

Shadows on duckweed-filled pond

Those few days spent in the Lowcountry will be remembered for the slow pace, the wildlife, and the play of light on the water and through the vegetation…there is a serenity to the place, something that will call me back.