What are you doing this weekend?
If you don’t have a better plan (and, for the record, binge-watching old TV shows is not a better plan), we’d like to suggest a road trip.
You live in the great state of South Carolina, which means you’re within easy driving distance of destinations and attractions found nowhere else. What’s more, a lot of them are free. Yes. Free. Plus, it’s fall, which is a perfect time to enjoy the Palmetto State’s scenic beauty along the way.
So, no more excuses. Grab your keys, charge up your camera phone and gas up the car. We’re hitting the road to nine unique destinations found only in South Carolina.
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Art imitates life
Charleston painter Frank deLoach is a regular visitor to Angel Oak on Johns Island and has painted a series of seven works featuring the 400-year-old live oak.
Photo by Ruta Smith
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Standing tall
Big Pedro welcomes I-95 motorists to South of the Border near Hamer.
Photo by Milton Morris
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Catch them while you can
Peak blooming season for Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies at Landsford Canal State Park in Catawba runs from mid-May to mid-June.
Photo by Carroll Foster
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Cheers to Summerville
Town of Summerville employees (left to right) Peter Ruth, Kayla Halberg, Meredith Detsch, Michelle Beltz and Officer Roger Medlock raise a toast to Mason, the world’s largest sweet tea.
Photo by Ruta Smith
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Shaped with love
Pearl Fryar has devoted much of the past 37 years to transforming his Bishopville yard into three acres of award-winning topiary art, attracting visitors from around the globe. Love, peace and unity are recurring themes in the creative topiaries and scrap-metal art that decorate his garden.
Photo by Milton Morris
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View from the top
It’s easy to see why 100,000 people a year visit the Fred W. Symmes Chapel in northern Greenville County.
Courtesy of YMCA Camp Greenville
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Just peachy
Gaffney’s famous Peachoid water tower is ready for selfies with visitors after a new paint job in 2017.
Photo by Carroll Foster
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Preserving history
During weekend tours of the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, visitors learn about the tools and techniques scientists use to prevent corrosion from destroying the Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley while they search for clues about her sinking.
Photo by Mic Smith
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A growing concern
William Barclay Hall oversees the tea plants at Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island, which are harvested from May to October.
Photo by Mic Smith
ANGEL OAK
It’s named for the Angel family who once owned it—not, as some guess, for the strong, graceful limbs that drape protectively around it. This 400-year-old live oak tree on Johns Island is thought to have survived so well because it lived on private property for many of its years. As a popular public landmark, it continues to thrive under the cautious protection of the City of Charleston, whose parks department took over its care and management in 1991.
It’s a beauty. Inside the chain-link fence around Angel Oak Park, it stands 65 feet tall, with a circumference of more than 25 feet—you need at least 10 people with outstretched arms, holding hands, to circle the trunk. And if you’re looking for shade, you’ll find plenty. Its shade covers about 17,000 square feet.
Giant, gnarled limbs—the largest is 89 feet long—branch in all directions, some dipping all the way down to the sandy soil below, some propped on wooden posts for added support. Feathery ferns grow across thickly ribbed bark on these limbs, many of which are hollow inside.
As soon as the gates open each day, tourists flock to the tree for photo ops. Rules are strict here—no sitting, climbing or standing on the tree; no picnic blankets or tripods close enough to endanger the root system. Plenty of signs and park staff are there to remind you, including its chief guardian, park manager Barbara Taylor, who has watched over the tree for 12 years.
“Just respect the rules, so the tree can survive another 300 or 400 years,” Taylor says. —Diane Veto Parham
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Get There
Angel Oak is located at 3688 Angel Oak Road, Johns Island, on a dirt-and-gravel road that runs behind St. John’s Parish Church on Maybank Highway. The park, which has picnic tables and a gift shop, is open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free, but reservations are required for special-event photo sessions. For more information, visit charleston-sc.gov.
SOUTH OF THE BORDER
Standing tall
Big Pedro welcomes I-95 motorists to South of the Border near Hamer.
Photo by Milton Morris
Love it or hate it, South of the Border—the Palmetto State’s largest roadside attraction—is still going strong.
Each year, thousands of weary travelers motoring along I-95 spot the 300-foot-tall observation tower shaped like a Mexican sombrero and are lured into stopping to see what the place is all about.
What they discover are curiously enticing gift shops filled with a remarkable variety of kitsch—and South Carolina’s only native soft drink, Blenheim Ginger Ale. Visitors also have the option to eat at multiple restaurants, enjoy amusement rides, shop at a massive fireworks store, spend the night at the motel or campgrounds, and visit a live reptile exhibit. At the center of it all stands Big Pedro, a 97-foot-high neon sign that prompts nearly all travelers to stop and snap a photo or two.
Even after 70 years of ups and downs (including $1 million in damages from Hurricane Matthew in 2016), there is no sign that the popularity of South of the Border is on the decline, says Ryan H. Schafer, president and co‑owner of the iconic roadside attraction.
“Traffic has been good,” Schafer says. “We have been up every year since 2009. There is just nothing else out there like South of the Border.” —Tim Hanson
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Get There
South of the Border is located near Hamer at the intersection of I-95 and Highway 301. Just follow the billboards by day and the neon glow by night. For more information, call (843) 774‑2417 or visit thesouthoftheborder.com.
ROCKY SHOALS SPIDER LILIES, LANDSFORD CANAL STATE PARK
Catch them while you can
Peak blooming season for Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies at Landsford Canal State Park in Catawba runs from mid-May to mid-June.
Photo by Carroll Foster
If you missed the show this year, mark your 2018 calendar now to see a natural wonder found only in South Carolina—the world’s largest colony of Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies in full bloom.
This rare, flowering stalk grows only in the rivers of Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, and the 20-acre patch found on the Catawba River within Landsford Canal State Park is both the biggest and the most accessible, drawing thousands of spectators each season to witness a giant, natural bouquet.
“The peak bloom—mid-May to mid-June—is what everybody wants to see. It’s 20 acres of 4-foot-tall plants all covered in white,” says Al James, manager of Landsford Canal State Park.
Park visitors can thank a rare combination of natural factors for the chance to witness the river in bloom, he says. This section of the Catawba River flows over a craggy dome of granite—perfect habitat for lily bulbs, which anchor firmly in the crevices and sprout three to five flowering stalks. Each flowering stalk can produce five to eight flowers, allowing the colony to stay in peak bloom for 40 to 45 days.
Visitors can take in the show from an observation deck built along the park’s nature trail or kayak to the colony and explore the archipelago of flowers from the inside.
“It’s amazing to get out there in the middle,” James says, and guests are welcome to do just that—provided they follow state law and park rules. “We don’t want people jumping up and down in them or picking flowers.” —Keith Phillips
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Get There
Landsford Canal State Park, located at 2051 Park Drive in Catawba, is open from dawn to dusk year-round. From May 1 to June 30, admission fees are $5 for adults, $3.25 for seniors and $3 for children ages 6–15. The park holds an annual festival to celebrate peak blooming season with live music, food vendors and botanists on hand to provide in-depth information on spider lilies. The event always falls on the third Sunday in May, putting next year’s celebration on May 20 from noon to 5 p.m. The festival is free with park admission. For more details, park office hours are 11 a.m. to noon daily. Call (803) 789‑5800 or visit southcarolinaparks.com/landsfordcanal.
MASON, THE WORLD’S LARGEST SWEET TEA
Cheers to Summerville
Town of Summerville employees (left to right) Peter Ruth, Kayla Halberg, Meredith Detsch, Michelle Beltz and Officer Roger Medlock raise a toast to Mason, the world’s largest sweet tea.
Photo by Ruta Smith
The sleepy town of Summerville first steeped its way into the Guinness World Records in June 2015 by brewing up 1,452 gallons of sweet tea and serving it from Mason, a giant, fiberglass, jar-shaped container complete with oversized straw and a lemon wedge on top. For a town that bills itself as “the birthplace of sweet tea,” it was spot on.
But, just months after Summerville achieved the world’s largest iced tea, Lipton brazenly upped and snatched the record away while celebrating the 125th anniversary of its tea business. Well, Summerville was having none of that. Last summer, on National Iced Tea Day, the town reclaimed the Guinness record by filling Mason with 2,524 gallons of iced tea, using 210 pounds of loose-leaf tea, 1,700 pounds of sugar and 3,000 pounds of ice.
Mason now towers 15 feet over a cozy courtyard next to Town Hall. The location has no official address, but you’ll get close if you aim for 200 S. Main St., Summerville. That’s the address for the municipal complex at the corner of South Main Street and West Richardson Avenue. Lamppost banners along West Richardson will point you toward Mason, wedged between the Town Hall Municipal Annex and a brick-sided parking garage, just behind the street-front shops.
Finding Mason requires a bit of a hunt, but when you do, he’s worth a souvenir selfie. “People come in all the time asking where it is, so they can take their picture with it,” says officer Roger Medlock of the Summerville Police Department. —Diane Veto Parham
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Get There
Mason’s courtyard is open to the public year-round. Parking in the adjacent garage is free. If you want to fill up on the sweet-tea experience in Summerville, pick up a souvenir Mason-shaped glass mug—with a complimentary sweet tea—at the town Visitors Center Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Another good time to visit is the upcoming Sweet Tea Festival (Sept. 21). Go to visitsummerville.com to learn more and to watch a short video of the town’s effort to set the world record.
PEARL FRYAR TOPIARY GARDEN
Shaped with love
Pearl Fryar has devoted much of the past 37 years to transforming his Bishopville yard into three acres of award-winning topiary art, attracting visitors from around the globe. Love, peace and unity are recurring themes in the creative topiaries and scrap-metal art that decorate his garden.
Photo by Milton Morris
He likes to describe himself as just a guy who cuts up bushes. But Pearl Fryar’s fame as a topiary artist has spread around the globe and draws more than 10,000 visitors a year to his magical three acres of sculpted garden shrubs, all surrounding his modest, brick ranch home in Bishopville.
Fryar was 40 years old when he bought a cornfield just outside town, built a house and started planting the property with cast off shrubs rescued from a wholesale nursery. Self-taught and armed with hedge trimmers and a vision of what could be, he started shaping shrubs and trees, one by one, into abstract topiaries.
“Been working on it ever since,” says Fryar, now 77. “The idea was to create a garden where you would see things you never saw before in a garden.”
No two pieces are exactly alike. There’s a fishbone tree (a cypress resembling a skeletal fish) and a rippling hedge of “sailing ship” junipers. There are loops and arches and angles and tiers. There are more than 40 different varieties of trees and shrubs, including hollies, pines, firs, live oaks, cedars, dogwoods and spruce, dotting the landscape, though Fryar couldn’t pinpoint the exact total of topiaries.
“I don’t even want to know,” he says, flipping a hand to dismiss the idea. “That way, I don’t know how many I’ve got to take care of!”
Tourists arrive by the busload on this otherwise average residential street and are delighted to find Fryar himself wheeling around the property on his well-used John Deere utility vehicle. Happy to greet guests, he answers questions, poses for pictures, and philosophizes about the best ways to nurture plants or young people (either way, as Fryar sees it, it involves letting their unique gifts shine).
“It’s something different,” Fryar admits of his now famous garden. “You’re only going to get so much credit doing what somebody else is doing.” —Diane Veto Parham
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Get There
The Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, located at 145 Broad Acres Road in Bishopville, is open to visitors Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., year-round. The garden is in a residential neighborhood, so the Fryars ask that visitors be respectful of neighbors’ property and street access. There is no entrance fee, but donations to offset maintenance costs are welcome. For details, visit pearlfryar.com.
PRETTY PLACE CHAPEL
View from the top
It’s easy to see why 100,000 people a year visit the Fred W. Symmes Chapel in northern Greenville County.
Courtesy of YMCA Camp Greenville
With fall leaf-peeping season just around the corner, make plans now to visit our state’s prettiest scenic overlook—Fred W. Symmes Chapel (more commonly known as Pretty Place Chapel) on the grounds of YMCA Camp Greenville.
Built in 1941 and renovated in 2012, the open-air sanctuary overlooks a picturesque valley in the Blue Ridge foothills. When it’s not in use for summer-camp worship services or rented out for weddings, visitors are welcome to soak in the view during daylight hours, says Cory Harrison, executive director of YMCA Camp Greenville.
“The chapel is booked often, especially on Saturdays and Sundays,” he says. “We strongly recommend visiting our website to check the schedule to avoid conflicts with weddings or other private events.”
If you visit the chapel, bring your camera and a sense of wonder.
“There are no other places in South Carolina that have this view,” Harrison says. “There is a feeling that you get when standing at Pretty Place and looking out over the mountains. … We call that feeling ‘Magic on the Mountain.’” —Keith Phillips
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Get There
YMCA Camp Greenville is located at 4399 YMCA Camp Road in Cleveland. Visitors can find out when the chapel is open at campgreenville.org/pretty-place or by calling the camp office at (864) 836‑3291. To reserve the chapel for a wedding or memorial ceremony, email djaques@ymcagreenville.org.
GAFFNEY PEACHOID
Just peachy
Gaffney’s famous Peachoid water tower is ready for selfies with visitors after a new paint job in 2017.
Photo by Carroll Foster
The famous peach-shaped water-storage tank in Gaffney may be the only S.C. roadside attraction to get a boost in fame from the Netflix TV series House of Cards.
It’s not the only oddly shaped water tower in the state. There’s one painted to look like a baseball in Fort Mill, off I-77, left over from when the Charlotte Knights played ball in South Carolina. And there’s one shaped like an egg in Newberry, off I-26, a nod to the town’s rank as the state’s leading egg producer. But neither of those seems to attract the level of attention the Peachoid does for, well, giggle-inducing comparisons to human anatomy.
When House of Cards worked the Peachoid into the plot of a 2013 episode, the water tank’s fame spread well beyond South Carolina, and fans of the show were delighted to discover the 135-foot-tall landmark was a real site they could visit.
“The show kind of reintroduced it to younger generations,” says Kim Fortner, assistant manager of the Gaffney Board of Public Works.
Built in 1981, the tank holds 1 million gallons of water to serve customers in Gaffney and Cherokee County. Functionality was never the only goal—the BPW board wanted to celebrate Gaffney’s status as a major peach producer, and they knew the tank’s visibility from the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway (S.C. 11) would give tourism a boost, too.
A stem, a green leaf, a shaded cleft and a bottom tip give the tank its defining peach look. Thanks to a fresh paint job completed in June, the Peachoid is in great shape for photos. “It looks like a different peach,” Fortner says. “A riper peach.” —Diane Veto Parham
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Get There
The Gaffney Peachoid is located at 294 Peachoid Road, Gaffney, off I-85 between exits 90 and 92. Peachoid Road runs along the northbound side of I-85. Admission to a gated parking and viewing area near the Peachoid is free and open at all times. Visit gbpw.com/peachoid-information or call (864) 488‑8800 for more information.
H.L. HUNLEY TOURS AT THE WARREN LASCH CONSERVATION CENTER
Preserving history
During weekend tours of the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, visitors learn about the tools and techniques scientists use to prevent corrosion from destroying the Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley while they search for clues about her sinking.
Photo by Mic Smith
For the past 17 years, maritime archaeologists and conservators have been studying and preserving the wreck of the H.L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat. And for just as long, history buffs have been drawn to the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston to revel in the suspense of a great Civil War mystery.
Attempting to break the Union blockade of Charleston Harbor, the eight-man crew of the Hunley made history on Feb. 17, 1864, by exploding a black-powder mine under the stern of the USS Housatonic off Sullivan’s Island. When the submarine failed to return to port, her whereabouts and the fate of the crew became matters of intense debate and speculation. For decades, theories about what happened that night captured popular imagination, but there were few hard facts.
That began to change in 1995, when divers found the Hunley intact and buried in silt not far from the Housatonic wreck site. The submarine was lifted from the sea floor in 2000 and placed in a specially built conservation tank on the former Charleston Naval Base. Like detectives working a “cold case,” scientists began the delicate work of halting the corrosion that threatened to destroy the submarine, excavating the silt-filled interior to give her crew a proper burial, and uncovering clues that may one day solve the mystery of what sank the Hunley.
From the start, curious crowds swarmed the facility, hoping to glimpse the historic submarine. To accommodate public interest in the project, volunteers with the nonprofit Friends of the Hunley began offering tours of the lab on weekends. Over time, museum-style exhibits have been added and expanded with each new discovery. Today, some 38,000 visitors a year tour the facility, and interest in the Hunley project shows no sign of diminishing, says Kellen Correia, executive director of Friends of the Hunley.
Tours, led by volunteer docents, are limited to 40 guests at a time and culminate on a viewing platform, where visitors can see the submarine submerged in the conservation tank as they learn about the groundbreaking work of the Clemson University Restoration Institute. The experience also covers biographies of the Hunley crew and the story of Charleston before and during the Civil War.
“Charleston has such a rich maritime history, and the Hunley fits right in there,” Correia says. —Keith Phillips
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Get There
The Warren Lasch Conservation Center is located at 1250 Supply St., North Charleston. Tours are offered on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online or on site. Prices: $16 for adults, $8 for students and children ages 6–17. For more information, contact Friends of the Hunley at (843) 743‑4865, ext. 10, or visit hunley.org.
CHARLESTON TEA PLANTATION
A growing concern
William Barclay Hall oversees the tea plants at Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island, which are harvested from May to October.
Photo by Mic Smith
The sign in front of the fields at the Charleston Tea Plantation tells the story of an attraction that’s unique not only to South Carolina, but to all of North America. Arrows point the way to the next nearest commercial tea plantations—Argentina, 4,823 miles; China, 7,320 miles; Kenya, 7,816 miles.
“There are some other places that are trying to grow tea in the states, but the way to describe us best is the only large-scale, commercially grown tea in America,” says managing partner William Barclay Hall, a third-generation tea taster.
Hall opened the farm on Wadmalaw Island in 1987 and now oversees 127 acres of fragrant Camellia sinensis plants, which are harvested and processed on site into black and green varieties sold exclusively under the Charleston Tea Plantation brand.
“Our product is strictly 100 percent American-grown teas,” Hall says. “We’re definitely a specialty product and obviously one of the rarest teas in the world.”
More than 65,000 visitors a year take the free, self-guided tour of the processing factory. For those who care to learn more about the cultivation of tea plants, the plantation also offers a $12 trolley tour running every 45 minutes. Both tours end in the plantation gift shop, where visitors are treated to as many free cups of iced or hot tea as they can drink while they stock up on freshly harvested tea.
“It’s a great place to visit, because it is very educational. Most people don’t have a clue how tea is made,“ Hall says. “The place is absolutely beautiful with the neatly trimmed tea bushes. You really can’t beat coming out and seeing a working tea farm.” —Keith Phillips
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Get There
The Charleston Tea Plantation is located at 6617 Maybank Highway, Wadmalaw Island, and open for public tours year-round (except major holidays) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. To learn more, call (843) 559‑0383 or visit charlestonteaplantation.com.
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SC Snapshot selfie challenge
To celebrate the unique attractions found only in South Carolina, we’re challenging you to submit your best self-portrait taken at any of the destinations profiled in this month’s feature. Visit SCLiving.coop/snapshot to upload your photo and tell us about your in-state travel adventures. If we publish your image and story in South Carolina Living, we’ll send you a $25 gift card.
The fine print: By submitting your photo and story, you grant South Carolina Living magazine and The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, Inc., full rights to edit and publish the material in print and digital publications, via social media and on our websites.
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Related stories
Made in S.C. – From famously hot Blenheim Ginger Ale to the world’s fastest golf cart, the Palmetto State is home to several one-of-a-kind items and products.
Man on fire – Watch as “Smokin’ Ed” Currie bites into one of his insanely hot Carolina Reaper chili peppers. Warning: Don’t try this at home!
Blenheim Ginger Ale: Some like it hot – Writer Tim Hanson explores the curious connection between a popular roadside attraction and Blenheim Ginger Ale.
Lost in the lilies – Grab your paddle and kayak down the Catawba River for a visit to the world's largest colony of Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies.
For the love of tea – Tour the Charleston Tea Plantation and learn the secret history of America's only commercial tea factory.
Deep secrets – Researchers seeking to solve the mystery of the Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley are one step closer to their goal.
A night full of neon – The neon signs at South of the Border shine in this photo gallery from Milton Morris.