The Palmetto State has 187 miles of Atlantic coastline. On these islands, pirates plundered, bathers frolicked, hurricanes carved new beaches, and black Union soldiers from Massachusetts surrendered their lives in blood and sand. The islands are still quietly patrolled by pelicans and egrets, and loggerhead turtle nestlings’ race from the dunes toward the moonlit surf.

This gentle coast, with no cliff and boulder seascapes, no outer capes meeting surf whipped by storms. Its appeal is subtler: a place of low islands and saltwater marshes stretching languidly out to a horizon where earth and air blend softly=y into and indefinite line. Narrow country roads meander through tunnels of massive, old and gnarled live oaks dripping tendrils of gray Spanish moss.

The Sea Islands range from small, transitory outcroppings of wave-washed, wind-blown sand to large forested island. Many of the islands are still uninhabited and accessible only by boat.