I had heard of Hunting Island’s wild beauty and of its eerie bone yard. That beauty had never before bribed me into making this tremendous drive with four children. I can appreciate beauty from afar. I can respect culture without having to experience it firsthand.
Still, I am a sucker for a challenge. Hunting Island was our last park to visit before we would become South Carolina’s first Ultimate Outsiders. The nearness of title and all associated glory (read a cool t shirt and substantial bragging rights) drug me out of my bed and onto the interstate all the way down to the barrier islands.
Hunting Island sounds as if it is a secluded place and it was aptly named. We spotted the brown park sign about a half hour after abandoning all traces of human habitat or accessible public bathroom. Just when we were fairly convinced that the next turn off would throw us into the Atlantic, we arrived at Hunting Island State Park. We toured the park first by car as we lost our way through the internal labyrinth of road and parking lot. After our quick tour, we again entered the park and found a place to park our devoted minivan.
The ranger station was quiet but gave us welcome relief in the form of a bathroom break and the acquisition of our very last stamp! The ranger must have thought we had lost our minds as we celebrated there in front of her giving high fives, hugs and wild yells! Oh well! Our sanity has certainly been questioned before over less. After all our travels and all our effort, we deserved any pomp and circumstance we decided to bestow upon ourselves! We were off to celebrate! The ranger told us where the beach was and we made haste!
We walked past the park’s one visitor cabin beside the historic lighthouse. We eyed both from a distance and left them unexplored. Today was for celebrating and the hike up the lighthouse steps in the South Carolina summer seemed too much work. Besides, Ben was already pulling hard on my arm and pointing past the monument directing me on towards his picked destination “Beach.” We walked past the light house and into the low tide.
The beauty of this park is her remoteness. She stands by herself away from commercial development. The Atlantic kisses the coast at Hunting Island and decorates her shore with sea foam, shells and shark teeth. We instinctively walked past the majority of other tourists. The parks had taught us a fondness for solitude. We basked in the isolation of the island amid the wild wooden juttings of washed up wood bleached by sun and surf that had defined themselves as her bone yard. We climbed and played amid the old wood in the haunted forest on the sand. We went around, on and under as we explored the barkless wonders.
As we made our way around these island furnishings, our eyes were drawn to a collection of tiny black daggers in the sand. I had never seen a single solitary shark’s tooth except in tourist shops but here on the beach were at least a dozen that had been washed ashore for our benefit. The children delighted in the discovery! Elation! Laughter! Accomplishment! Joyous screams! I joined in the search but couldn’t repress my own giggles as I imagined toothless sharks gumming swordfish.
Hours passed to the background music of rhythmic waves, calling gulls and our own wild sounds as we reveled in the beauty of the beach and the delight of each other’s company. What a fitting way to end this portion of our Ultimate Outsider journey. We had been transformed as a family and the laughing tide seemed to baptize us as a new entity altogether. The sand and saltwater christened us Ultimate Outsiders who embraced life outside the current cultural norms. We had left status quo behind when we had realized how paralyzing and debilitating it was. We had grabbed hands to make this Ultimate jump Outside societal norms. We had purposely chosen the wilds over the malls, each other over avatars, reality of a fictitious virtual world. We had opened our eyes to the beauty of what was around us. We became Ultimate Outsiders. We crossed into a world of discovery, exploration, experiences and togetherness. We chose growth, free thought and independence.
The Ultimate Outsider journey changed us. It enriched us. It grew us. The wilds are now our habit so we have not stopped exploring them. As I pen these words, we are well on our way of completing this journey a fourth time through. Our endeavor saved us from florescent lights and blaring screens.
We are Ultimate Outsiders. We choose to see and to think and to feel…we have chosen the wonders of reality.
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