Fossils, Shells, and Adventures with Friends: Edisto SC, 2025

We woke up at 4:45am on Saturday - Alexa set an alarm that shook me to my bone, I was exhausted from the adventures of the night before. Our flight was delayed 5 hours in the HOT Philadelphia airport - no surprise there! But we got to catch up and drink way too much coffee at La Colombe while we charged our phones, and then we enjoyed a gelato in the AC of the International wing. Finally, we arrived in Charleston and took a quick Lyft to our rental car which was an adventure in itself - my GPS would not locate the correct address and I am so thankful for friends with iPhones (You'll only hear me say that once!) We didn't arrive to our home-base in Edisto until 12:15am and of course we talked with our gracious hosts about all the exciting things they had planned. As soon as we entered their cozy rental unit just 2 blocks from the beach, we saw shells, coral, and fossils arranged by size, type, and color, laid out on all the tables, remnants from the week prior to our arrival.By 1:30am I could not sleep out of a mix of pure excitement, and maybe all the caffeine I had earlier. That alarm took me right out of an early morning "daydream" of swirling thoughts of finding seashells and wandering the airport in search of air conditioning. 

I got right up and started prepping for our first Edisto exploration day. The temperature was about 60 degrees and set to go up to 76 - perfection. I had a quick coffee and breakfast, grabbed my bucket, and we set out to Edisto Beach State Park, located at the north eastern part of the island - the best spot for a sunrise. You can camp right over the dunes at this park, either by tent or RV, with electric and water hook up, or you can rent a cabin - there are nice bathhouses and a great little gift shop on site. Evening Primrose bloomed the night before and greeted us as we walked up the path to the beach. Gorgeous Palmetto palms framed the pastel skyline above us, many near the dunes edge were topped by hurricane Ian, much of the Carolina coast has been inundated with coastal surge and erosion from centuries of storms. The 350,000 acres of salt marsh in SC alone are the most important natural barrier of the destruction caused by these storms. Tall grasses and oyster beds help to disperse the storm surge, plus they are the nursery for the local ecosystem’s tiniest creatures.

The tide was going out - we walked about a mile and half north - towards Jeremy inlet and crossed over into the oyster beds. You can only cross this creek at low tide. Cannonball jellies, hermit crabs, pen shells, and whelks were everywhere! We collected olive shells, conch, clams and got to see some live tulip shell egg casings beside a little sea anemone. Alexa and I collectively found about 10 sharks teeth, ray plates, drum fish teeth and turtle scutes, along with various mystery fossils from larger mammals of the Pliocene and Pleistocene fossils (1.9 million to 10,000 years ago). We found just a few shards of pottery made by indigenous people from 4,000 years ago. There are a few shell rings in the area that have slowly been claimed by the encroaching tide. Shell rings are structural sites of native communities, unlike shell mounds, which are dump sites from cooked and discarded shellfishing for food, There are 3 known shell rings in the area - located just a few miles north of the State Park at Botany Bay Beach. Conch axes used to chop down palms as well as arrowheads can all be found on the beaches at Edisto Island. You are not allowed to collect artifacts, or specimens from Botany Bay beach - as it is a historical nature preserve, but the same items make their way down to Jeremy Inlet and the State Park Beaches.

We made it back to the car with buckets of our new treasures, I ended up throwing back at least 6 large whelk shells, as I kept finding more unique shapes, or interestingly patterned ones on our walk back. We headed back towards town and grabbed lunch at the Sea Cow Eatery - I can’t recommend this place more! They had a beautiful patio and family atmosphere with brightly colored accents and their logo is a super adorable surfing cow with snorkel gear on. The food was awesome - I guess that’s what 25 years of serving fried oysters and grits will get you!

After lunch we headed to the Edisto Environmental Learning Center - located in a wooded and serene part of the State Park - I could have spent hours in the rocking chairs outside the museum, or hiking the grounds. The wildlife and history of the area was well documented within the museum using various displays of fossils, artifacts, taxidermy dioramas and live touch tanks of local creatures. The environmental protection efforts were clearly labeled and easy to read for both young and old visitors alike, we especially loved the pufferfish that seemed to be flirting with us in his tank. There was a salt marsh history video and a large display for the conservation program of the leatherback turtle marking nesting sites all throughout South Carolina. You can download a plethora of marine educational content from the SCDNR here. bit.ly/seasciences

 

After this adventure we shopped around and visited a gem and mineral store to look at some giant sharks teeth at My Native Dreams and enjoyed a latte from Marsh Moon Cafe next door. Alexa and I perused through SETco and got matching T-shirts with the map of the island in my favorite green!

At the end of the evening we watched the sunset from the south western end of the island, where the local dolphin species can be seen each day. This particular family of bottlenose dolphin is known for “strand feeding” where they hunt for schools of fish and scare them up onto shore, using a wave to beach themselves while they catch the prey. Sea whips in many colors are plentiful this time of year in yellow, purple and orange! When we got back to home base, we cleaned and dried our collections from the day and talked until we were practically falling asleep.

Sunday was another gorgeous sunny day - we woke at sunrise and got ready to visit the Botany Bay preserve and plantation - where the shell rings and artifacts can be found. It was hot on the long path from the parking lot over the marsh and to the beach, but the beach was breezy and bright. This beach is known as driftwood beach, or boneyard beach by many locals, the erosion in this area is the most apparent, huge tree trunks still remain rooted in the sand and you can see just how much land used to be there as you stand beside a tall root structure. The trees eventually break way and wash ashore in tangled piles of sun bleached branches. Whelk shells line the tops of these driftwood trees, since you are not allowed to collect here, daily explorers create picturesque sculptures with the shells they find.I found my real life Happy Place* when we stumbled upon a palm shack someone crafted using debris from the wave worn trees, Alexa and I crawled inside. I wish I could have stayed forever with that warm ocean breeze in the land of whelk shells, but there was much more to explore. *My happy place is the place I have learned to go to in my mind when I am feeling overwhelmed and anxious about things. I’ve always pictured a little driftwood A Frame structure, open enough to the elements that the breeze trickles in. I can hear the rustling of the palm fronds and the birds in the distance. I can smell the tide and taste the salt and there is sand stuck to my skin.Where the ocean feeds the marsh there is a winding creek called Frampton Inlet, that Alexa and I spent nearly a half an hour standing in. This was the highlight of my trip. If you know me - you know I love hermit crabs. There was a cluster of shells in assorted sizes in about 4 inches of water as the low tide was slowly coming to slack. It was still enough to see what was going on under the surface. We watched 10 hermit crabs check the one empty shell nearby, and a few even tried it on, some small guys left and others came. The larger shell in the center was peculiar, I assumed it was a whelk that was being eaten by one of the crabs. I know that hermit crabs huddle and assort themselves by size when an empty shell is available. Once the empty shell is claimed the next in line takes the previous owners’ home and so on down the line. I assumed the smell of the whelk being eaten is what attracted the other crabs to the huddle, sizing themselves up with the assembly line. In just 30 seconds everything changed. The tide began to come in and it got cloudy at first, then the water was so forceful the whole huddle broke apart! All the different crabs tumbled down the creek into the marsh, all but the whelk and the first crab who was preying on it. I picked up the two to be sure of what I assumed, snapped some photos and put them back. I wondered how long it takes a hermit crab to eat a whole whelk?

The evening was spent eating Di’s fresh cooked grouper(my favorite) from the Seafood Market - and a glorious key lime pie we picked up from their favorite stand, George and Pink’s. We talked about the history of the island and how sea island cotton and the slave trade initially drove industry to this area and how historical plantations are being preserved here to this day. Once the Civil War ended, the freed Black people pooled their funds and purchased 4,000 acres of plantations to sub divide into family farms. The cotton industry was still a viable source of income for many, until the boll weevil eventually decimated it. Today, many descendants of the original freedmen still own land and continue to farm rice, potatoes, tomatoes, indigo, hay, and citrus.

On our last day we woke early and prepped for a trip north towards Charleston to get the most in before our evening flight home. Angel Oak was our first destination, a 400 year old oak tree that has survived through the rise and fall of transatlantic slavery, hurricanes, war, invasive species, and huge technological advancements faster than anything in history. Under its canopy the world is quiet, people grow quiet in its humongous size. All it’s limbs lean west from years of wind and rain pushing it that way. There have been telephone poles and cables supporting it from the ground up. From the inside, it is hollow as it slowly begins it’s decline as nature takes it’s course. It was marvelous to witness.Next we headed to the College of Charleston to visit the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History - I decided that if I ever should go back to school, this is the place! They had many rooms we could look into and see students working on conchology, geology, and archeology with tables filled with specimens. Life size models of all the popular Jurassic period dinosaurs are within the lobby of the building, leading you upstairs to the museum. Its display of real fossils, both local, and from overseas is extensive and very well done! I loved the display about whale blow hole and dolphin fin evolution and I learned that there are both male and female sand dollars.There is much to discover in Edisto, from the cultural significance, to the environmental impact of climate change with the eroding coastline.  It is a rich land of history and heartache that I hope to visit again someday soon, there is so much more I want to explore and learn.

Thank you Ren and Di for showing us a wonderful time!