Charleston: High Ground Loop

Trail Facts

• Distance: 11.5

Waypoints

PIL001

Location: 32.2340202331543, -80.7787628173828

Keep binocs handy; head N on gravel trail into 4,053-acre refuge, named after a Revolutionary War general and signer of the U.S. Constitution

PIL002

Location: 32.2428703308106, -80.7763214111328

R for short loop around Ibis Pond; painted buntings forage for seeds in cordgrass and marram grass

PIL003

Location: 32.2443695068359, -80.7747116088867

L @ Y; if lucky, you might spy bald eagles above large live oaks

PIL004

Location: 32.2473297119141, -80.7658309936524

R for small loop around Osprey Pond

PIL005

Location: 32.2458915710449, -80.7625732421875

L@ Y; alleyway of longleaf and slash pines draped in Spanish moss

PIL006

Location: 32.2587890625, -80.7586669921875

L @ Y to Mackay Creek, where snowy egrets & herons fish in tidal flats

PIL007

Location: 32.2593193054199, -80.7651672363281

R @ Y into a marshy maritime grove. Caution: possible gators

PIL008

Location: 32.2645111083984, -80.7581024169922

R @ Y around Clubhouse Pond; leave gravel for grass trail. Stay on path: Grass may hide snakes, bugs, poison ivy

PIL009

Location: 32.2509918212891, -80.7568588256836

Skirt Intracoastal Waterway, looking E to spot sandpipers and oystercatchers wading in salt marshes

PIL010

Location: 32.245059967041, -80.7581634521484

R @ T. Side trail: Turn L for .5-mi. spur to Bull Point. Bottle-nosed dolphins feed on finfish along Skull Creek

PIL011

Location: 32.2454109191894, -80.7620010375976

L @ 4-way toward Shell Point

PIL012

Location: 32.2408599853516, -80.7646789550781

R @ Y around Wood Stork Pond back to WPT 3

PIL013

Location: 32.2437591552734, -80.7742767333984

L @ T; return to car

Wildlife on Mackay Creek

Location: 32.2591514587402, -80.7654190063476

©John Bradford