Living with Nature
Beach
Families find that our beautiful beach and ocean can simultaneously serve as a sculpture studio, construction site, ballfield, swimming pool, and water sports arena. And when the moon hangs high in the summer sky, our beach even becomes a birthing suite where tiny loggerhead hatchlings scramble seaward in a run for their lives.
Everywhere you look, the sculptured sands of Kiawah's windswept dune fields are an artistic work in progress, a palette of azure skies, emerald dune plants, and aquamarine shallows. The Island's east-west orientation means the beach revels in views of both the sunrise and sunset. The only question is this. Even if given the rest of your life in this magical water world, how much peace and joy could you possibly drink in?
Forest/Flora
If you stand silent as a sentinel in Kiawah's maritime forest, a world of bright plumage, shining eyes, and rich scents opens up before your eyes. Here, towering trees, tangled sea myrtles, and tropical saw palms provide stark contrast to smooth dunes where sea oats are the tallest plant life.
In our magic forest, sprawling live oaks stand out in the verdant tree canopy, flaunting their long limbs under costumes of lacy Spanish moss. A well-developed sense of curiosity is all you need to gain entrée into the home turf of generations of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Every season is infused with evergreen scents reserved elsewhere for the holidays. The boughs of ages-old pines and cedars fill up your senses with every invigorating breath. Moss, lichens, leaves, and bits of bark pad your footfalls, as you maneuver around the bright green fiddlehead ferns that obviously make chlorophyll with reckless abandon.
Look into the distance, and watch as the breeze ripples through fields of sweet grass, making its way in a giant wave to the forest treetops. Even farther afield, evening primrose, seaside croton, and sea oye-eye daisies color the landscape.
As you take in the scene all around you, you can't help but think that not even a fairytale author could invent a forest this enchanted.
Marsh
As the sound of your paddle slices the silence, reflective waters mirror the grandeur of a cloud-splashed sky. Pick up your binoculars, and the marsh on Kiawah Island becomes a series of living, breathing discovery channels. The flow of the tides serves as a wellspring of life, bringing nutrients that sustain a vast microcosm among the placid waters. Thirty miles of marsh trails also set the stage for your private explorations.
How many spider crabs or periwinkle snails could you count on a luscious spring afternoon in a stunning salt marsh? Will you find a new passion as you paddle alongside bushy sea myrtles, or lose yourself to the beauty of an egret in the golden cordgrass? Don't be surprised when you come upon yet another revelation at the end of the day.
The real beauty of Kiawah Island's saltwater marsh may not be the scenery at all, but rather what it encourages you to discover about yourself.
Wildlife
This is where the wild things are. Kiawah is home to 18 species of mammals and more than 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. While there are no lions, tigers, and bears, we do share our incredible space with bobcat, white-tailed deer, alligators, and even a nest of American Bald Eagles. Indeed, every part of Kiawah is a veritable refuge for an inspiring array of fauna.
Creatures of the air are everywhere. Some 300 species of birds reside seasonally or permanently on the Island. Little blue herons, sugar white ibis, long-legged egrets, and hooded mergansers make the marshes their home, and a shorebirds provide a visual feast on the beach.
On any given day, there's much to spy in the sky -- orange-beaked oystercatchers, avocets, killdeer, black-bellied plovers, sanderlings, willets, ruddy turnstones, black skimmers and all manner of gulls and terns. Extraordinary species of butterflies, such as the yellow and black Palamedes Swallowtail, also float on the autumn thermals, and flit between flowers.
The tidal creeks of Kiawah Island are filled with red drum, spotted sea trout, and flounder. The creeks, along with the ocean and the Kiawah River, also provide a playground for bottlenose dolphins. The broad shoreline also sustains a profusion of tasty catches and sea creatures. From sand dollars to whelks and starfish to pen shells, Kiawah delights beachcombers with the best finds of their lives. Carefully slide your glance from your murder mystery to the hole in the sand nearby, and you may find yourself playing peek-a-boo with a ghost crab. Look higher and watch brown pelicans and cormorants diving acrobatically for fish.
On This Page:
Photo Gallery
Our backyard is blessed with breathtaking natural habitats stretching from sea to sky, from sleepy snowy egrets and playful baby bobcats to sand-covered fiddler crabs and tranquil coastal sunsets. We invite you to view our Photo Gallery.
Please note that these photos are for viewing purposes only.
