Myrtle Beach State Park

Visited in March 2021 for kids spring break. It was a nice day, sunny and cool 60s. We think it was early enough in the year that we maybe saw less than 5 flying insects the whole time we were there. We spent about 3 hours in the park. We went right when the park opened and had no problems pulling up to the gate. There was a problem where the gate employee overcharged us. When I confronted her, she apologized and proceeded to charge me the correct amount. She "thought" she refunded the original charge and just told me to keep the receipt and wrote "credit" on it just in case. I had very little confidence in her at that point. The charge posted to my CC 3 days later and no signs of the "refund". I'll probably have to dispute this with my CC company. By the time we left around 1PM, the line to get into the park was very very long at least 20 cars deep.

Beach: We did not go into the water as it was quite cold still. There was plenty of parking when we arrived and we did walk up and down the beach a little bit near the pier. We found some interesting wild life (star fishes) and the kids had fun just running around on the sand for 15 minutes. The beach was clean.

Pier: We walked through the shop to get to the pier. Masks signs are listed everywhere but patrons wearing masks was hit or miss and we didn't see any employees asking them to put masks on in the 10 minutes we were shopping in there. As I walked up to the cashier to pay the one cashier proceeded to put her mask on as she walked up to the counter to help me check out. The store itself was nice and had a good assortment of gift shop like items and fishing gear. It was well stocked and of course all my kids had to walk away with something. The pier itself was also very nice and wide so even with a good number of people it was easy to stay 6-ft apart. At least at like 10-11AM. We did the pier scavenger hunt while we were there and all the signs were easy to find. There was only one that was missing that look like it had recently fallen off. We walked all the way to the end and back and it took maybe 15 minutes and that's with the kids scavenger hunting.

Trails: we hiked the two major trails, Sculptured Oak trail and Yaupon trail. We were doing the park scavenger hunts while hiking and everything was in order and easy to find. Look liked there were a few pavilions that you could rent. We think someone was having some kind of wedding/reception at the far one near the Yaupon trail head. We then walked all the way back to the pier and did the rest of the trails later in the day from the Nature Center. The bathrooms at both trail heads near the beach were actually really nice for a state park. There was a lot of ventilation and wasn't stuffy at all. Bikes allowed on the trails and in some spots it got a little tight. There were also a few very muddy spots to cross. Overall the trails are well kept. I would take my cub scouts on them without a second thought.

Nature Center: Had it's own parking area. The walking path leading up to it from the parking lot ends at the campgrounds. The nature center itself was very nice. A number live animal displays and other neat artifacts. The kids really liked it and the lady who was running it was also very knowledgeable and interactive with the kids. She helped us with the scavenger hunts. We hiked the rest of the Sculptured Oak trail from the Nature Center parking area and out to the pond and then back. One thing they don't tell you is that for completing 3 scavenger hunts you only get 1 patch regardless of how many children you have with you. It was suggested that if we made a small donation like $5 to the park she would be able to give us additional patches for our other 2 kids. After the mix up at the gate we were reluctant to "donate" anymore to the park. The staffer at the Nature Center had her mask on at all times but there were patrons who came in without masks on and the staff did not request that they put on masks.

Overall the state park was great but we think Huntington Beach State Park was nicer and less crowded.