Pier and Beach Walk

The Pier and Beach Walk explores Myrtle Beach State Park's Atlantic Ocean frontage, including the park's 750-foot fishing pier—one of the longest public fishing piers on the South Carolina coast—and a mile of preserved undeveloped beach that stands in stark contrast to the heavily developed Grand Strand on either side. The park's beach remains one of the cleanest and least crowded stretches of the Northern South Carolina coast by virtue of its protected status.

The pier extends 750 feet into the Atlantic and is open year-round for fishing and wildlife observation. From the pier deck, bottlenose dolphins frequently work the nearshore waters in pods, and brown pelicans glide in formation just above the wave surface. Flying fish have been observed launching from wave faces near the pier end during summer. The beach walk itself passes through the full beach ecosystem: the dynamic swash zone, the wind-tided wrack line of seaweed and shell fragments, the upper dry beach, and the fore-dune stabilized by sea oats—a protected species in South Carolina. Sanderlings chase retreating waves by the hundreds in winter, and least terns dive for sand eels over the nearshore in summer. Loggerhead sea turtle nesting activity begins at the park's beach in late May, with marked nests a common sight through August.