Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge

It's hot and humid, so perfect for a 8 mile hike, right?  We drove down towards Hilton Head, SC for a hike and exploring at the Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge.  It's 4000+ acres of salt marsh, tidal creeks, and forests.  Even though it was hot, it was a really neat place.  They allow bicycles on the trails, so we'd like to go back (when it's cooler) and explore more places.  We walked out to White Point - a 'beach' that's covered with fiddler crabs and even a couple of blue crabs at low tide.  The picture above was at White Point.

The sheer number of fiddler crabs was amazing!  They flowed around like water whenever you walk to get out of your way.

Here's a close up of a couple of them:

At high tide, most of these plants are under water, but we were there at low tide and could explore a bit.  It was mostly firm ground, but occasionally you'd hit a soft spot and sink into yucky brown/black mud.

On the way to White Point we passed lots of birds - ibis, wood storks (!!) they're endangered and really cool!), and other things I couldn't identify.

                                          Wood storks!

                                        
                                           Ibis

                                          And finally, a blue crab on the beach.