Saturday, November 07, 2009

Huntington Sights

This park is the result of Archer Huntington's wealth inherited as a stepson of a railroad and industrial baron -- how important it is to choose your ancestors well. According to Wikipedia this is still owned by his trust and leased to the state of South Carolina -- maybe he didn't need the tax deduction and didn't trust the state to not sell it off in hard times. Archer himself is remembered for his Hispanic studies and a marine museum in Virginia.

Atalaya is the partially ruined summer house on the park grounds that was built by slave labor -- admission $1. Across the highway is the extensive Brookgreen sculpture gardens that were developed by Archer's sculptress wife -- admission $10 good for seven days.



The alligator was back on his end of the little island in the late afternoon sun again today. Also saw one of the wood storks swoop by low and slow but couldn't get the photo because I had a big camera on the bike. As the tide went out from the salt marsh, I watched a couple of birds nearly gorge themselves on little fish as they were carried by the tide.

Today's hiking was over five miles. The biking total was about 20 miles -- all inside the park.


View Hiking and Biking the Huntington Beach in a larger map

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