4/13 Myrtle Beach State Park

I arrived a couple of days ago, but it rained most of yesterday, so I was pretty much stuck inside doing work.  This afternoon was sunny and pleasant so I decided to go for a bike ride.  I'll post photos tomorrow of the beach, but I really enjoyed the entrance and drive into the park when I came in, so I took some photos of it.  Since it is spring here in South Carolina, the azaleas and dogwoods are in bloom. 

The lady at the entrance station assured me that this was all natural and had not been planted by some garden club, as I had assumed.  The azaleas and the little white flowers grew here naturally because they had a bit of sun because of the road cut through the woods.  There were dozens of clumps of what I discovered were called Atamasco Lilys.  I looked them up and they are endangered and poisonous. They grow from bulbs and look a lot like oversized crocuses.

  

I liked these wild roses along the beach dunes.

 

Also, this morning as I was trying to watch the almost non-existance TV, I saw that a pileated woodpecker going after the bugs that he must have found in a rotten log the tent campers had pulled out of the woods yesterday.  He hung around for quite a while and let me get several pictures of him pecking away at various things.

 



This campground is not my favorite because the spots are packed so tightly together and because I cannot get any TV reception because of all the trees, but it is quiet at night and I am comfortable.  It is also very close to the beach.  I rode down to the beach and walked out on the fishing pier today also.  Tomorrow I am going to ride my bike on the low tide, hard-packed sand down to the pier to the north where the big hotels are located.