Breathtaking beaches may be found all along the beautiful South Carolina coast. Tourists shall try one of the secret beaches on seldom frequented barrier islands if they want to escape away to their own quiet stretch of heaven. These sandy sanctuaries may be found all along the state's coastline, from SC's southernmost point to North Myrtle Beach, and offer a peaceful location to wander down the beach, look for shells, or simply soak up the sun. Only accessible by boat, most of the mesmerizing islands have remained undeveloped, preserving the beach in its natural state. Here are the best 10 underrated South Carolina beaches.

Charleston's Barrier Islands

Charleston has evolved to become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States, garnering several honors from travel journals. The interesting history, enchanting charm, and tasty gastronomy are all appealing, but tourists can also extend their vacation by a few days to visit some of the greatest beaches in the South. Only 45 minutes to an hour from downtown, the splendid peninsula of Charleston is encircled by barrier islands. There are several beautiful beaches to visit in the area!

Bulls Island

Bulls Island is the biggest of four barrier islands in the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, and it stands along with one of the most pristine stretches of shoreline on the east coast. The famous and unique Boneyard Beach, where the remnants of surf-battered trees are sprawled over the sand, is one of its seven miles of beaches. A ferry to the island is available for tourists, as well as a variety of guided excursions such as a Bulls Island sunrise tour, beach drop, kayak trip, and multiday adventure.

Capers Island

Travelers shall visit this state history preserve, located 15 miles (24km) north of Charleston at the southwestern edge of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, on a picturesque kayak or boat tour. Along with a beautiful beach, they will be able to see a variety of dazzling birds, including endangered brown pelicans and ruddy turnstones. On the island, 294 different kinds of migrating birds have been sighted. Capers Island, like Bulls Island, features a "Boneyard Beach" formed by years of erosion.

Daufuskie Island

The splendid Daufuskie Island, located directly over Calibogue Sound from Hilton Head Island, will make its visitors feel a million miles away from society. It's not uncommon to observe no one when walking along the bewitching white sand beaches. To get to Daufuskie, travelers have to take a boat or water taxi from Hilton Head to Freeport Marina's public pier, then hire a golf cart and drive all the way across the island to the beach. They should not miss out on seeing the astonishing remainder of this remote South Carolina sea island and its numerous wonderful historical monuments while they're there.

Morris Island

This amazing 840-acre deserted island is located at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, across Lighthouse Inlet from Folly Beach, and is known for its historic 19th-century lighthouse. The incredible 150-foot brick structure now remains in the ocean just offshore after years of degradation. The stunning beach, on the other hand, is as lovely as ever, and it's an awesome place to hunt for seashells, especially sand dollars. Morris Island may be visited on a boat or kayak excursion organized by local outfitters.

Folly Beach

Folly Beach, South Carolina, is renowned as the "Edge of America" and is one of Charleston's most beautiful, well-known, and famous beaches. The Washout is a notable surfing area on the island's awesome eastern edge. If tourists continue walking until they reach a cul-de-sac, they may stroll to an abandoned road with hurricane-damaged foundations covered in colorful graffiti. A rookery of pelicans may also be seen where the Atlantic Ocean meets the clear water of Folly River.

Seabrook Island

The magnificent Seabrook Island has been home to soldiers, pirates, and well-to-do Charleston families over the years. The Seabrook Island Club is now a private community with beach access and vacation rentals. The splendid beaches are exclusively available to members and visitors due to the island's setup. The bewitching untouched sand is unlike any other beach in South Carolina. Aside from the beaches, Seabrook Island's tourists may ride their bikes throughout the land. Marsh rabbits, sea turtles, whitetail deer, and alligators are just a few of the fauna worth seeing.

Isle of Palms

The unique Isle of Palms is a high-end destination. Although the beautiful beach is still available to the public, there are several places that are only accessible if visitors stay at a resort or rent a unit. Beach access is available at Isle of Palms County Park, along with expert seasonal lifeguards and a dedicated swimming area for children. An exciting playground and marvelous picnic areas are also available.

The Grand Strand

The astonishing "Grand Strand," which runs between the Little River and Georgetown on the northern coast of South Carolina, is the state's greatest stretch of beautiful beach. The Waccamaw tribe used to live here until Europeans arrived after the American Revolution. Every year, millions of people visit this area, particularly the impressive Myrtle Beach. Unlike several other regions of the state, the Grand Strand has public access to all of its marvelous beaches. Family-friendly attractions are well-known in the area.

Pawleys Island

The tranquil and magical area of Pawleys Island, one of the region's oldest resort areas, is the first stop on the tourist's route north on King's Highway. There are a few fancy golf clubs and resorts on the "mainland" side of town, but visitors cannot access the beach from there. However, if they cross a beautiful little inlet, they will be on the wonderful island itself. They can also visit Otis Beach, which is a popular public beach.

ISLE OF PALMS — A surprise rip current injured two swimmers over the weekend, serving as a reminder for beachgoers to exercise caution as summer nears.

The National Weather Service’s Charleston office observed a rip current around 6 p.m. April 24, forecaster Neil Dixon said. The powerful stream, located about 100 yards offshore between 21st and 22nd avenues, caught up two swimmers.

Both were rescued and taken to a local hospital for treatment, Dixon said.

The rip current caught meteorologists by surprise, and appeared to be an isolated incident. There was nothing in the April 24 forecast to indicate such a risk was present, Dixon said.

Rip currents, or localized currents that flow away from the shoreline toward the ocean at perpendicular or acute angles, usually reach speeds of 1 to 2 feet per second, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Ocean Service. Swimmers who get caught in a rip current are often quickly swept away.

The ocean is a dynamic place, and its wave patterns are constantly changing, said Dwight Koehn, who leads the Weather Service’s observation programs. Intense rip currents can form and dissipate in a matter of minutes.

Conditions mostly depend on near-shore wave conditions, which are affected by the swells coming in from the open ocean, Koehn said.

If you find yourself caught in a rip current, do not panic, Koehn said. It’s important to continue breathing and keep your head above water. Swim parallel to the shoreline until you’re free from the current’s pull, then swim directly toward the beach.

Another ocean-related incident was reported the same day off nearby Folly Beach. Several people called 911 around 3 p.m. after witnessing a man “bobbing up and down in the water” before disappearing near the west side of the pier, said Rocky Burke, the beach’s deputy director of public safety.

The department initiated a search-and-rescue effort, assisted by the U.S. Coast Guard, S.C. Department of Natural Resources and city of Charleston, Burke said.

Authorities used a helicopter and boats to look for the swimmer but efforts were called off around 6 p.m. There is no plan to resume the search unless new information comes in, Burke said.

His department has not received any information about the swimmer’s identity, Burke added.

The Weather Service does not believe that incident had to do with rip currents, Dixon said.

A California town that had a population of just 8,638 in 2020 is the clear-cut most expensive suburb in the entire United States, according to data from Redfin and Zillow in a recent Travel and Leisure list.

The median sale price of a home in Montecito, California was a whopping $5.6 million. It's located just 10 minutes away from Santa Barbara on the coast, and is about a two hour drive north of Los Angeles.

The median price in Montecito rose by 0.2% since March 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation have had a major impact on the housing market.

According to Mortgage News Daily, the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage began the year at 3.29%, but has since increased to 5.5% as of May 2, per CNBC.

Daryl Fairweather, Redfin's chief economist, explained how there has been some signaling that the housing market could be slowing down with less people searching for homes this year compared to last year.

"In addition, we are seeing a fast-growing amount of sellers dropping their prices. These are all things that show a cooldown in the market after more than 18 months of a housing frenzy," Fairweather said. "There's still way more demand for housing than supply, but these early signs of a slowdown indicate that sellers can no longer overprice their home."

The overall median price of a home in California was the second-highest in the country at $758,360, so the ridiculously high price of a house in Montecito should come as no surprise.

There were plenty of suburbs around the country that also had a median price well more than seven figures including, Paradise Valley, AZ ($3,487,300), Wesley Heights, District of Columbia ($2,452,000), Westport, CT ($2,410,000), Palm Beach, FL ($2,207,600), and Mercer Island, WA ($2,150,000).

Other suburbs in the United States that topped a million dollars included Greenwood Village, CO, Kaanapali, HI, Hinsdale, IL, Chevy Chase, MD, Brookline, MA, Big Sky, MO, Sea Isle City, NJ, Talaya Hill, NM, Rye, NY, Isle of Palms, SC, Brentwood, TN, West University Place, TX, Park City, UT, Great Falls, VA, and Moose Wilson Road, WY.

Hedgesville, WV had the lowest median price out of any suburb in the country at just $315,000. Other locations under $400,000 included St. Matthews, KY ($338,000), Palmer, AK ($349,450), Hernando, MS ($359,950), Johnston, IA ($387,000), and Oak Hills Place, LA ($390,811).

ISLE OF PALMS, SC. — Though futures markets already have priced in uncertainty tied to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, grain markets the world over will truly begin to feel the impact of supply deficits on the global wheat and corn balance sheets beginning in August and September.

How a three-million-tonne global wheat supply deficit plays out is largely dependent on how the rest of the world treats Russia financially. But for corn, the principal uncertainties lie in Ukrainian farmers’ ability to procure enough diesel fuel, fertilizer and labor to seed the crop.

These global outlooks were the central focus of market research analyst Joe Lardy’s presentation earlier this month at the North American Millers’ Association 2022 Spring Conference. Mr. Lardy honed his expertise in the commodities over a 25-year career in grain, initially as a trader with Cargill, Minneapolis, and for the past eight years with CHS Hedging, Inver Grove Heights, Minn.

“The way I look at markets, I’m up at the space station, looking at markets at a super-high level,” Mr. Lardy said. “Sometimes I feel like Tony Stark in ‘Iron Man’ with his giant movable touchscreen computer as I try to bring the perspective of what’s happening here and here and here and what’s interconnecting them.”

The spring session at Wild Dunes Resort in Isle of Palms, SC, provided milling and non-milling members of NAMA background information and analysis on wheat, a commodity in which Russia and Ukraine provide 14% of global supply, and corn, production of which is important to Ukraine but negligible in Russia.

Ukraine, one of the biggest countries in Europe and the 45th largest in the world, features a land area roughly the size of the US Midwestern states stretching from Chicago to central Kansas to Nashville tup to northwestern Ohio. Half of that land is devoted to agricultural endeavors that employ about 15% of the population compared with 3% of the US population. Wheat is produced throughout Ukraine, but most production takes place in the eastern areas, currently a hot spot for fighting, Mr. Lardy said. That’s unfortunate for grain since the region is a key southerly logistical route for crops to ocean-going ports, which are closed indefinitely and will require extensive rebuilding.

“Even if a peace treaty was signed tomorrow, there’s infrastructure that has been damaged and going to need to be replaced,” Mr. Lardy said. “The longer the war goes on, certainly the more destruction takes place, but there’s still going to be this period after the fact that’s still going to take a lot of time to get resolved.”

The USDA has reduced production and export projections in Ukraine for the current marketing year but eliminated neither. That’s because Ukraine already shifted a significant portion of its wheat crop before Russia invaded, Mr. Lardy said. Whatever remains in storage has the advantage of most easily feeding the populace compared with corn, which feed animal in an intermediary step toward feeding people. As for new crop, Ukraine is a few months out from a winter wheat harvest and, under normal circumstances, their supplies would hit the market in July-September. This year, Ukraine likely won’t be able to sell or ship any wheat in that period.

“We can see this on paper now, but when are we really going to start to feel the impact of this?” Mr. Lardy asked. “When the boats aren’t there, when the product doesn’t arrive, when people reach for the panic button, that’s when we’re really going to start to feel the lack of those shipments really kicking in.”

On the other side of the territorial dispute sits Russia, which turned wheat into a front-and-center commodity over the past decade since the country was stung by depressed oil prices. Most Russian wheat is grown in its western region, adjacent to the conflict. As a major exporter of wheat, Russia now factors heavily into the “world grid” of supply, Mr. Lardy said, but the flow of wheat remains in a war-time haze for now. The USDA lowered Russian wheat export expectations by 3 million tonnes, to 32 million tonnes in February. To date, restrictions imposed on Russian exports by the United States and many other countries have yet to curtail their exports of food and fertilizer, he said.

“Is Russia going to be able to continue to export and have that system operate?” Mr. Lardy asked. “If they don’t, that changes the whole dynamic. And we’ve seen the futures market react, pricing in the uncertainty. But it has not priced in a calamity. The US futures market has suddenly become the international market for wheat prices. The Chicago Board of Trade represents 4% of the world’s wheat. But right now, it’s getting all the trade, it’s acting like it is the benchmark of world wheat prices. Rightfully, it probably should. There needs to be this risk premium in the market because if you take out one of the leading exporters in the world, where does that gap get filled?”

At least in part by Australia and India, Mr. Lardy said. In the case of the latter, India historically hasn’t exported much wheat. But its crop is considerable and the country is looking to significantly increase its presence in the world market, Mr. Lardy said. At the same time, China was expected to lift Russian import restrictions and provide a potential home for excess Russian capacity. If China takes in more Russian wheat, that leaves Australian wheat to go other places, he said.

But no matter how some wheat supplies find homes via atypical lanes and bring the market into relative equilibrium, the global wheat balance sheet is going to have some holes in it, he said. How the rest of the world treats Russia in terms of its financing is expected to dictate the path forward for the next crop year, Mr. Lardy said.

“The more severe the sanctions, the bigger the hole in the grid is going to be, and the bigger the hole, the firmer the price is going to be,” he said. “Every impact from this war is kicked down the road. The market has priced in the uncertainty. The 2022-23 crop is a calamity, and we don’t know how to price that yet. I don’t see markets going down until we see a signed peace treaty, and then I think we take a substantial chunk out of the wheat market the day that happens.”

So small is Russia’s corn production it doesn’t factor into the world grid, Mr. Lardy said. In Ukraine, unlike its wheat crop, corn grows largely in the northern and central regions that aren’t under Russian occupation and are outside the key fighting areas. Thus, the biggest unknowns as Mr. Lardy sees them are whether Ukrainian farmers can find enough supplies and labor to plant the crop in spring. Seventy per cent of Ukraine’s diesel fuel was supplied by Russia prior to the start of fighting, Mr. Lardy said. The availability of inputs such as fertilizer, also a major export from Russia, is in doubt, as is labor, though for far different reasons than in the United States.

“To me, the manpower aspect is a greater concern,” he said. “If you have able-bodied people, are they going to be planting crops or are they going to be fighting? What I think is going to happen, longer term, is that Ukraine is just going to be sitting on a stockpile of corn. So, whatever they can’t export, they’ll keep and as long as it doesn’t get destroyed, they’ll have it.

“Is their production going to be down this year? Absolutely. You can probably cut Ukrainian corn production in half this year. That’s a significant hit. However, they’re going to have a lot of stock left over. If this conflict doesn’t persist for years, when Ukraine comes back to the market, they should probably have a decent exportable surplus. The Ukraine problem isn’t a right-now problem, it’s a big-time next-year problem. Are they going to be able to harvest soon, and are they going to be able to get their corn crop in the ground?”

Another war-time impact to consider is sunflowers. Ukraine is the biggest global sunflower exporter in the world at 46% of the world market.

“They’re huge in sunflowers,” Mr. Lardy said. “Sometimes there are things we normally don’t hear about, see or talk a lot about, but that can have a major impact, especially if, as in this example, you’re impacted by sunflower oil and seeds. That could be a big loss for the world grid.”

Fertilizer

Russia’s importance to crop inputs such as fertilizer — it provides 44% of the global supply of potash — and South America’s ability to source it for the upcoming crop will be an important factor to watch, Mr. Lardy told the NAMA millers. Potash and urea price spikes were noted as far back as July 2021, six months before the Ukraine conflict. Prices made a significant bump then and took off substantially when the conflict began.

“The Southern Hemisphere is going to start their growing season soon,” Mr. Lardy said. “July and August are the key import times for fertilizers into South America. In a couple months, we’re going to have a pretty good understanding of what South America’s going to be facing in terms of their fertilizer availabilities. What South America has to apply will be huge on what their yields are next year. The world grid needs South America to produce a good crop.”

And tight world corn supplies mean we can’t afford a corn crop failure here in the United States, either, Mr. Lardy said. US farmers balked at high fertilizer prices but purchased them anyway after weighing it against good margins and high futures prices on corn, he said.

“Our farmers and producers said prices are so high,” he said. “Well, we’ve got pretty expensive corn. It pencils. There was some griping, of course, but they’ve bought it and put it down. Our balance sheets are tight, but we’re setting up OK in terms of availability. We’ve got seed, we’ve got fuel, we just need Mother Nature to cooperate.”

Earth Day is here and it’s a perfect time to honor the beautiful outdoors that we enjoy on a daily basis in the Lowcountry. It’s a day to give thanks to the land that grows our food, and it’s a day to give back to our Mother Earth.

Of all the many ways to give back to our environment, picking up litter is of high importance for me. Not only is it a pet peeve to see trash on the ground, but I see litter as being disrespectful to our natural surroundings. I also think about the animals that have to live amongst the litter. When I see someone leave belongings behind at the beach, where do they think those will end up when the tide comes in? I think about the fish having to swim around and dodge soda cans or plastic cups.

How can we teach our children to be cognizant of the long-term detriments of litter? It is up to us as parents to show our children by example that keeping our planet clean is vital for maintaining the quality of life we enjoy for future generations.

From parks to rivers to beaches, opportunities abound year-round to get out with your family and get involved in cleaning up the community, including with various service groups.

Here are some local organizations that host litter cleanups in the Charleston area:

Keep Charleston Beautiful: An affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Palmetto Pride, Keep Charleston Beautiful hosts a number of cleanup events in Charleston throughout the year and will also assist a group sponsoring a cleanup event.

Community Pride: Established in 1966, Community Pride Inc. of Charleston County coordinates and promotes Adopt-A-Highway cleanup efforts across the county and hosts six litter sweep dates throughout the year.

S.C. Sea Grant Consortium: The Beach Sweep/River Sweep is always held in September. This is South Carolina’s largest one-day volunteer waterway cleanup event.

Palmetto Pride: The Francis Marion National Forest Cleanup effort is one of the most successful cleanup programs that Palmetto Pride sponsors and it takes place every February. They also sponsor programs like Clean Teams, Palmetto Prideways and the Great American Cleanup.

Charleston Parks Conservancy: Trash along the West Ashley Greenway became one of the major focuses of this conservancy that is responsible for caring for the city parks in Charleston.

Isle of Palms Cleanup Crew: This local crew holds spring litter sweeps every other Monday from 6-7 p.m. on April 25, May 9 and May 23. Before each spring sweep, individuals and groups can attend a 5:30 p.m. welcome session when volunteers can learn more from Isle of Palms Cleanup Crew and the South Carolina Aquarium’s conservation team about the litter problem, its ecological impact and solutions. The spring welcome sessions are a great opportunity for groups from schools, civic organizations and businesses to get engaged. As the busy beach season heats up, Isle of Palms Cleanup Crew will hold sweeps weekly, Memorial Day to Labor Day, from 6-7 p.m. No advance registration is required, but if you have a large group coming, email Susan Hill Smith at susanhillsmith@gmail.com with information about your group and a head count estimate. The group meets at the beach access at the 1100 block of Ocean Boulevard on Front Beach, tucked between the City of Isle of Palms showers and facilities, next to Coconut Joe’s. Reusable buckets, bags, gloves, clipboards, pens and data collection sheets are provided. Each volunteer is offered a free IOP Cleanup Crew magnet that’s good for free parking during future sweeps.