Huntington Beach State Park

Today we headed out to visit Atalaya the winter castle home of the Huntington family.  The castle is located in the Huntington state park.  We arrived there only to discover that the castle is closed due to Halloween celebrations.. They have decorated the interior and have spooky tours at night.  We did enjoy the rest of the park and wandered around the outside of the castle.  We saw many plovers which look much like sandpipers.  It reminded us of our travels in NB during the migration last year.  We also saw lots of egrets and herons (great blue and brown).  We enjoyed watching the tiny fish in the salt marsh and a short walk on the ocean beach before heading back into the city. We picked up BBQ for dinner tonight and in the morning will be headed out of Myrtle Beach and back toward Canada.

gate on the salt marsh. the gate controls flooding/draining of the fields for rice production

snowy egret

flowering tree

plovers feeding in salt marsh

Huntington beach

Huntington beach

ripples in the sand @ Huntington beach

sun on the water @ Huntington beach

windswept trees @ Huntington beach

Atalaya

Atalaya courtyard

Atalaya sidewall

Atalaya courtyard wall

Atalaya windows with shutters

Atalaya front entry

Plovers feeding in salt marsh

Plovers feeding in salt marsh

footprints  in salt marsh

egret

barnacles under the boardwalk

some type of rail...hard to tell which type since he was to well hidden in grasses

Plovers feeding in salt marsh

Plovers feeding in salt marsh