E disto Beach has a special place in my heart. For as long as I can remember, my grandparents have taken us there the week after Christmas.

Edisto is as close as you can get to paradise in South Carolina.

It has the perfect blend of Lowcountry charm and beauty. It’s also the quietest beach in the state, especially in the mild winter.

You can sit back and relax.

Or if you are like me, explore it.

For an outdoor enthusiast, there’s a lot to see at the ‘Sto’.

My girlfriend Chloe Terry and I headed down there for the day.

I wanted to show Chloe everything the ‘Sto’ had to offer.

I picked up Chloe at 7 on a warm February morning.

The week had served as the first sign of Spring with temperatures in the high 70s. It was perfect for a beach day.

After 2 hours, we turned onto the Edisto Island Scenic Byway or SC-174. This beautiful 17-mile road takes you to Edisto Beach, but I planned to make a few stops along the way.

WE TURNED OFF and drove down a long bumpy dirt road towards the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge. The 12,000-acre refuge protects estuaries and marshland where native birds and other wildlife thrive. At the end of the road was the Grove Plantation House. The white plantation-style home, builtin 1828, overlooks the rice fields and is now used as the NWR office.

The refuge has an extensive trail system. Most of which are old roads or dikes. We hiked he Alexander Pond Trail. The short 0.6-mile loop circles a pretty pond, once a rice field.

At high tide, the pond fills and at low tide, a contraption locks the water in the pond.

At the end of the trail, you cross over a canal and have a stunning view of old rice fields stretching miles to the South Edisto River and the marsh.

You can walk miles of dikes into the open expanse.

Back on the byway, we crossed the steep tall bridge over the Intracostal Waterway and connects the mainland to Edisto Island.

The narrow 2-lane road passes through maritime forest, past pretty pastures and across little creeks and marshes.

Oaks grow on the edge of the road and their limbs make a tunnel.

We passed the Edisto Museum and the Serpentarium, both great visits in the summer but closed for the winter.

ABOUT 3 MILES before the beach, we turned off the byway to head towards Botany Bay Heritage Preserve.

Botany Bay is known for its unique driftwood beach but has a lot more to offer. The drive down the long dirt road to the preserve entrance is a popular spot for pictures. The dirt lane was the entrance to a plantation and its old-growth mossy oaks form a tunnel.

At the entrance, we signed in and drove 2 miles to the beach. We started a half-mile hike to the beach. The trail is a wide raised causeway that crosses over the marsh at a barrier island.

ABOUT HALFWAY ACROSS, we passed through a tiny hammock island. The causeway ended at the barrier island and we followed the trail through a maritime forest to the beach.

At high tide, there was barely any beach. It was littered with large dead trees, roots and all.

Bay is a magical place and worth the visit.

It’s best to visit at low tide.

We took the longer route leaving the preserve. The dirt road passes ponds, marshes and through beautiful pine and maritime forests.

We stopped at one of the ponds to take pictures when we saw two yellow eyes staring back at us from the pond. A fully grown alligator was swimming from the middle of the lake towards us.

We quickly left.

By now, we were craving shrimp.

At the Edisto Beach entrance are several great restaurants. We chose one of my favorites, the Waterfront Restaurant.

We both enjoyed big plates of fried shrimp.

AFTER LUNCH, WE stopped at the Edisto Beach State Park Environmental Learning Center to stamp Chloe’s book. While there, we learned about the large ACE Basin region and about the local sea life. The Learning Center also had live snakes, turtles, and even a baby alligator.

We drove down to the park’s boat ramp on Big Bay Creek. From the dock, we looked out across the creek and saltwater marsh at Edisto Beach about a mile away.

The park has 4 miles of trails through an amazing tropical maritime forest. We hiked the popular Spanish Mount Trail. It starts at the boat ramp and takes you through the park, across several boardwalks, and even onto a hammock island, before ending at the Scenic Byway.

We crossed a 300-foot boardwalk the length of a football field.

By now we were starting to lose daylight but we drove Palmetto Boulevard to the far end of the island. At the end of the road, we walked out to Beach Access 36 to “The Point.”

A short trail leads to a wide beach that curves around the back of the island. The beach has unforgettable views, especially with the sun inching towards the horizon.

LOOKING DOWN THE wide beach, the Atlantic stretches towards infinity, but the beach faces the magical St Helena Sound and the setting sun.

In the Sound, islands dot the orange horizon and marsh stretches back towards the mainland. The only sounds were the gentle

The only sounds were the gentle waves and the occasional boater passing by.

I’ve seen dolphins here before but not today. We could see Harbor Island and Hunting Island about 10 miles out in the Atlantic.

Words simply cannot do this place justice. Come visit this amazing jewel for yourself. If you have questions, please email me at cole.lexchron@gmail.com.

Cole Stilwell is a senior at Gray Collegiate Academy and Outdoor Writer for the Lexington County Chronicle.