Trail: Habitat Loop
Hike Location: Caw Caw Interpretive Center
Geographic Location: west of Charleston, SC (32.79156, -80.19678)
Length: 3.6 miles
Difficulty: 3/10 (Easy/Moderate)
Date Hiked: February 2018
Overview: A loop hike around a former rice plantation,
partly through shady forest and partly through sunny marsh.
Center Information: https://www.ccprc.com/53/Caw-Caw-Interpretive-Center
Directions to the trailhead: From the west end of
I-526 at US 17 on the west side of Charleston, take US 17 west/south 10 miles
to the signed entrance for the Caw Caw Interpretive Center (also signed as Caw
Caw County Park) on the right. Turn
right to enter the Center, pay the small entrance fee, and drive the gravel main
road to the parking loop at its end.
Park here.
The hike: Although
you would hardly know it by driving through this area today, South Carolina’s
lowcountry was the center of the New World’s rice production for more than 200
years. Firmly established by 1720, South
Carolina’s rice industry relied heavily on slave labor, and rice plantation
work was some of the worst around. On
point, water-borne diseases, sunny hot fields, venomous snakes, and alligators
killed up to one-third of the slave population every year. Nevertheless, rice production in South
Carolina remained very profitable: a slave could produce up to six times his
market value in rice each year. Thus, the
state remained the United States’ largest producer of rice until the 1880’s.
In the
1870’s and 1880’s, the end of slavery in America, a series of damaging
hurricanes, a decline in soil productivity, and increased competition from Gulf
states such as Louisiana led to the collapse of South Carolina’s rice
industry. Over a couple of decades rice
production in South Carolina declined by 97%, which changed South Carolina’s
low country from one of the most prosperous regions in the country to one of
the poorest. Today the former rice
plantations are reverting to marsh and forest, and parts of two former rice
plantations and a former tea plantation make up the Caw Caw Interpretive
Center.
Caw Caw Interpretive Center is one
of three properties owned and managed by Charleston County Parks that feature
extensive trail systems, the other two being Wannamaker County Park and Palmetto Islands County Park. Among these three
parks, Caw Caw is my favorite. The trail
system at Caw Caw Interpretive Center features several short loops that pass
through the parking area, but the best hike in Charleston County may be the 3.6
mile Habitat Loop described here. The
Habitat Loop spends about 2/3 of its distance in shady woods and the remaining
1/3 in sunny former rice fields, and it constitutes a grand tour of all that
Caw Caw Interpretive Center has to offer.
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| End of concrete path near gift shop |
Because the Habitat Loop does not
pass through the parking area, your first objective is to get to the Habitat
Loop. From the parking area, walk
northwest on a concrete path between the Center’s two main buildings, and pick
up a trail map at the Center’s gift shop.
The gift shop building also contains some interesting exhibits that make
for good browsing before or after your hike.
Pass Kiosk #2 on the right, but keep walking northwest past the
butterfly garden and a bench to where the concrete path turns to gravel. At the next intersection, turn left, following
signs for the Swamp Sanctuary.
The trail turns to dirt as the
freshwater marsh (former rice fields) comes into view through the trees on your
right. Just shy of 0.2 miles, you reach
the major trail intersection that is your access point for the Habitat
Loop. The trail going sharply left leads
directly back to the parking area, while the trail going sharply right will be
our return route. To begin a
counterclockwise journey around the Habitat Loop, angle slightly right to begin
a two-track dirt trail. A blue trail
marker is attached to a concrete post here, and it is the only such trail
marker you will pass on this trail.
 |
| Start of Habitat Loop |
 |
| Hiking a wide old road |
In another 500 feet, you reach
another trail intersection, where you need to turn right to stay on the Habitat
Loop. Although the trails at Caw Caw are
well-maintained and easy to follow, the Habitat Loop’s route is poorly
marked. Thus, that trail map you picked
up at the gift shop comes in handy at intersections such as this one.
1 mile into the hike, you cross the
park entrance road and reenter the woods on the other side. Although the scenery remains of the
bottomland hardwood variety, the trail’s character changes from a wide
two-track old road to a narrow root-laced dirt path. The path had been cleared of leaf-litter on
my visit and remained easy to follow.
Vehicle and railroad noise filter in from the right.
 |
| Narrow dirt path through bottomland hardwood forest |
At 1.25 miles, you reach Kiosk #9,
where you return to the wide old road.
More staff only trails are found in this area. Soon you reach a bench that gives your first
clear view of the tidal marsh and former rice fields, a preview of the scenery
to come. This bench makes a nice place
to sit and have a trail snack near the midpoint of this hike.
 |
| First tidal marsh view |
At 1.6 miles you reach Kiosk #8,
where the Marshland Trail exits left and offers an opportunity to cut this hike’s
distance roughly in half. For the full
tour, continue straight to enter the tidal marsh on a man-made dike. Notice the first of several wooden water
control structures built in the dike here; they are used to raise and lower
water levels in the various ditches and marshes that comprise the former rice
fields.
 |
| Water control structure |
The next 1.2 miles pass through sunny
marsh with open water on either side, so wear a wide-brimmed hat for sun
protection. When I came here on a
seasonally warm afternoon in late February, I saw an alligator and an egret in
this marsh, and the fish were literally jumping out of the water: they would
fly 2 feet into the air before plopping back into their watery home. Turn right at Kiosk #7 to stay on the Habitat
Loop along the perimeter of the old rice field.
A controlled burn had recently been conducted here to free the tidal
marsh of invasive species.
 |
| View of former rice fields/tidal marsh |
After passing an interesting high
bench with wheels, at 2.7 miles you need to turn right, cross the main ditch on
a wooden bridge, and then turn right again.
Soon you leave the sunny marsh and reenter the forest before passing Laurel
Hill, a former slave community, on the left.
At 14 feet above sea level, Laurel Hill occupies the highest land in the
preserve, and a brief detour to the left will allow you to explore the
community’s ruins.
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| Swamp forest boardwalk |
