Woods Bay State Park is a tiny state park in the South Carolina coastal plain just a few minutes from I-95. It is about half way from our home to Charleston SC. So it is the perfect place for a driving break. Much nicer than an I-95 rest area. There was no one here today. No visitors, no staff, just us.
After a pleasant lunch in the picnic shelter, we walked the boardwalk in a Cypress Swamp and a nature trail around the Carolina bay lake. Carolina bay lakes are elliptical shaped shallow lakes with a Northwest/Southeast orientation. There are hundreds of thousands of them from Florida to Delaware but NC and SC have the largest concentration. Origins of the lakes have been debated for a century. Early aviation was when the scope of the lakes were revealed. Prior, they were just wet areas that people tried to drain. It is thought 97% of the bay lakes in SC have been destroyed.
Pollen studies and core samples indicate that the lakes were formed episodically over tens of thousands of years. Perhaps as long ago as 100,000 years. Their NW/SE orientation is consistent with wind direction during the Wisconsin glaciation. The most accepted theory is that as the sea receded leaving irregular shaped depressions of water, NW winds shaped the lakes. The NW end of the lakes is quite shallow and sandy while the SE ends are deeper and peaty. Having walked around several, this is quite evident.
This looks like club moss growing in the water. I doubt that is what it is. Whatever it is, it has a beautiful appearance.
Cypress knees
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