Santee Coastal Reserve

Georgetown, SC to Wilmington, NC | Camping in Santee Coastal Reserve | The Brick Church at Wambaw | Hampton Plantation State Historic Site | January 2024

Once we left Charleston, it was time to make our way to our last campsite for this road trip. We were also bracing ourselves for our coldest night of van life yet — with a forecasted low of 16 degrees! I sure didn’t expect us to reach this record on the South Carolina coast, but here we were. Thankfully we had our van heater and plenty of layers and blankets to keep us warm.

We drove North on US-17 to the Santee Coastal Reserve, and found the small free campground within the reserve. There are only 8 spots here, but with the cold we knew there wouldn’t be much competition for those spots tonight. Sure enough, there was only one other camper who was as crazy as we were to be out here. We found a secluded spot and set up for the night.

Since we still had several hours of daylight and whatever warmth that brought, we set out for a walk on the nearby trails. We started on a trail that went along the marsh, and promised a boardwalk over it, but when we came to the boardwalk we found that it had either been damaged or closed so that you couldn’t easily access it from the trail. That didn’t stop Curtis from exploring further, but it was too much work to get Charlotte over there so she and I started walking back. The water in the marsh was mostly frozen, so at least we didn’t have to worry about alligators! I enjoyed seeing the familiar sight of cypress trees and ‘knees’ sticking out of the marsh water.

Once we were finished with that hike, we continued following the road that led to the boat ramp, which ended up being a lot longer than we planned. But we were determined to get to the ramp so that we could have views of the water and maybe the Georgetown lighthouse, so we kept going slowly at Charlotte’s pokey pace. At least by this point the morning wind had died down, and being in the sun actually felt comfortable! We finally reached the water, but didn’t quite have the views we had hoped for. That’s ok, we were able to stay warm and give our puppy (and ourselves) plenty of exercise before hunkering down for the night. On our walk back, Charlotte got a little pep in her step and led us back to the campground at a remarkably fast pace, especially for a blind dog who had already had 2 walks earlier today!

When we got back to the campground, Charlotte and I took shelter in the van while Curtis took his little pocket chainsaw out and worked on clearing a tree that had fallen and blocked a part of the road through the campground. We made dinner, ran the heater and kept the doors closed, and managed to stay warm and cozy together in the van all night.

The next morning was bitter cold, just as predicted. We had about 3 ½ hours of driving and couldn’t get our rental car or check in to the hotel in Wilmington until after 1, so we had a few hours to kill along the way. With it being as cold as it was, it was tempting to just hide in the van, but we had a few attractions starred on our map that we hadn’t visited before, so we picked one out in hopes that it would be worth the cold.

We started driving to Hampton Plantation State Historic Site, but since we would be arriving before the gates opened, we went on a little side quest, following signs to a historic church nearby. The church is the St. James-Santee Parish Episcopal church, also known as the Brick Church at Wambaw. Interestingly, the church was originally built for the French Huguenot’s fleeing persecution in Europe. They eventually assimilated with the more like minded English Protestants of the area. Unlike most other historic churches we have gone searching for in remote areas of the South, this one wasn’t just ruins — it was a beautiful brick building, inside and out, still in great condition. Apparently George Washington once visited this church as well. It was definitely worth going out of our way for, and an easy way to kill time until the next site opened!

When we arrived at the Hampton Plantation visitor center, we found that some of the park was flooded, including the path to get to the mansion. The ranger told us that this was all from rain in the mountains. The edges of the water were frozen, but definitely not enough to be able to cross. She pointed us to a worn path that went around the side of the visitor center, along the water and eventually would meet up with the trail. We made our way around and then began our short walking tour of this historic site.

The site is one of the many plantation homes of the Carolina coast. Beautiful physically, but frustrating historically. It was primarily a rice plantation, and linked to the Pickney and Rutledge families, both prominent political forces through the 18th and 19th centuries. Because of their political standing, George Washington stayed at the house on his Southern tour (the same time he would have visited the Church, of which the plantation family was undoubtedly members). During that stay, the owner of the plantation commented that he was considering cutting down a swamp oak in the front yard. Washington suggested that he keep it – which naturally lead to the tree being not only preserved, but honored as ‘The Washington Oak’.

We walked around the mansion, read the signs and admired the giant trees and the vultures on the roof. They do offer tours of the mansion for a small per person fee, but there were none going on today. After being outside for as long as we could stand the cold, we retreated to the car, and Curtis stepped in to the visitor center to ask the ranger some more questions.

After that, we completed the 3 ½ hour drive to Wilmington, NC, stopping to grab burgers for lunch at a Highway 55 drive through in Shallotte, NC. We made it to our hotel and settled in for the week ahead.