Beach Walk

Hunting Island's Atlantic beach walk traverses one of the most visually striking and ecologically dynamic shorelines in the Southeast—a rapidly eroding barrier island beach flanked by a ghost forest of standing dead loblolly pines killed by saltwater intrusion as the shoreline migrates landward. The island loses an average of 15 to 20 feet of shoreline annually at its northern end, making this ghost forest one of the most accessible and dramatic examples of barrier island migration in the eastern United States.

The standing gray trunks of dead pines emerge from the surf at low tide, creating an otherworldly landscape that has been featured in numerous nature documentaries and photographic essays. The eroding forest edge exposes root mats, peat deposits, and mineral sediment that reveal the island's formation history in cross-section. Shorebird diversity is exceptional: Wilson's plovers and least terns nest on the upper beach in summer, while sanderlings, dunlin, and semipalmated plovers work the wrack line in winter. Brown pelicans and royal terns fish offshore year-round. Loggerhead sea turtle nests—marked with orange wire cages—are a common sight from June through August, and hatchlings emerge from July through October. The northern end of the beach walk approaches the ghost forest's most spectacular section.