Myrtle Beach State Park, South Carolina
Early one morning I joined a group on the beach participating with a ranger program. She was digging up sea turtle nests that had already hatched to see how many had not survived to leave the nest. The nests had already been located and marked to keep people away.
We gathered on the beach to await the ranger. It was another pretty sunrise.
The ranger began excavating the nest.
The remains of the dead baby sea turtles were spread out and cataloged. Many of the eggs hadn't even hatched.
The ranger told an interesting story. When the baby sea turtles hatch they have to make their way across the beach into the ocean in order to survive. Their hatching coincides with a full moon, which gives them light to guide them into the water. But a nest no one had known about hatched up the beach in the resort area, and all the lights confused the baby turtles. When some were discovered to be going the wrong way away from the ocean, word quickly spread. Not only did people gather up the turtles they could find and carry them out to the ocean, all the nearby resorts cut off their lights so the turtles could focus on the moon.
While camping at Myrtle Beach State Park we drove to Waccamaw River Tours for a river cruise.
We rode in a pontoon boat.
Which took us up and down the Waccamaw River.
The green clump floating on the river is lily pads, but they weren't blooming at the time.
It was a pleasant relaxing couple of hours.
I like this photo because of the distortion the boat's wake causes in the reflections in the water.
After the river tour it was back to the state park for one final walk on the beach, then we were off early the next morning.
Next Location - Huntington State Park
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