Photo courtesy of The Sea Pines Resort
When Charles Fraser and his family founded and developed Sea Pines in 1959, they had the foresight to establish a 605-acre tract of forest in the heart of the plantation dedicated for a wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation. Today, thousands of years after nomadic Indians made this island their home, the Sea Pines Forest Preserve remains one of the last natural tracts of land on Hilton Head.
The Preserve has entrances on Greenwood Drive (between the Greenwood Gate and the CSA Security Office) and off Lawton Road at Lawton Canal Road. There is ample parking and no charge to explore the bike trails and marked hiking trails on your own.Visit a 4,000-year-old Indian Shell Ring, a circular mound of oyster shells discarded by Indians; see where rice, indigo, and cotton were grown; spot the same species of wildlife that were hunted by island residents in the 1700s.
Guided walking tours, boat tours, Gullah storytelling around a campfire, and old-fashioned southern hayrides offer fun-filled ways to explore the Spanish moss-canopied woodlands, tranquil lagoons and ponds, salt marshes and tidal creeks, antebellum rice dikes and old logging trails, rookeries and wildflower meadows.
Shore fishing is allowed within the Preserve, and a permit can be obtained from Sea Pine’s CSA Security Office on Greenwood Drive. If you are not staying within the Sea Pines Resort, there is a daily gate pass fee.
Lawton Stables (843-671-2586), located at 190 Greenwood Drive in the Sea Pines Resort, offers carriage rides through the preserve, a special way to see this island enclave. The wagon comfortably seats five or six people and is pulled by Harley, an 18.2 hand Clydesdale horse (the kind you see in the Budweiser ads). Harley is a favorite of locals and visitors alike and can be regularly seen grazing at the stables. By the way, he loves to be patted.
The stable also offers daily trail rides for anyone eight years old and older. Reservations are required. They also have a pony rides for youngsters age seven or under and a free small animal farm.
For more information, contact the Sea Pines Recreation Department at 842-1979.
Also see “Things To Do”:
7. Explore a Wildlife Refuge
13. Go Horseback Riding
56. Meet the Baby Animals
Companies that tour Sea Pines Preserve include:
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