US 17 Coastal Highway

Welcome to US 17!

~Highway 17 South begins... and Highway 17 North ends - in Winchester, Virginia~

We're a nation of highways.  Many of these roads are journeys in and of themselves - roads that reveal our history, remarkable natural beauty, and are, quite simply, fun.  As Andrew Nelson wrote in National Geographic Traveler: A road is a road, but sometimes it's more. 

This site is about a road that is definitely more - US 17 Coastal Highway.  It stretches from downtown Winchester, Virginia south to Punta Gorda, Florida - 1,189 miles of highway, much of which runs along the Atlantic Ocean.  We love this road, and our goal is to show you why.

Our motto here at US 17:  Slow Down and Drive!

There are four ways to use this site:

• read posts (below) as they are posted
  
• click on "From VA to FL: stops you don't want to miss!"
• on the right,  select a Category of interest
  
•  use the Search function at the upper right

 Please contact me at US17CoastalHighway@gmail.com about places, stories and people along Highway 17 that should be included. And send images too - I'd love to include them as a "View from your Car Window" post. I look forward to hearing from you!

Vacant Home (south of Windsor, NC)~

~next door to this old gas station/store - near the intersection of US 17/US 13 and Pollocks Road (south of Windsor, NC)~

The 2013 Lowcountry Blueberry Festival at Blue Pearl Farms (McClellanville, SC)

Copahee Sound Boat Landing (off Gadsdenville Rd, Awendaw, SC)

~Copahee Sound Boat Landing~

at the end of Gadsdenville Road off Highway 17 North, Awendaw, SC

*suitable for kayaks and smaller watercraft at high tide - but check out the tide tables first!

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~end of the causeway~

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~view of the landing at low tide~

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~Charleston County Park & Recreation Commission Boat Landing Rules~

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John Isbell, "Traveling Alone"

Hobcaw Road, Hobcaw Barony (Georgetown, SC)

~Hobcaw Barony - the Belle W. Baruch Foundation~

Abandoned Gas Station with honeysuckle (Highway 17 South, McClellanville, SC)

highway quote no. 49

“The Americans have found the healing of God in a variety of things, the most pleasant of which is probably automobile drives.”

~William Saroyan, Short Drive, Sweet Chariot~

View from your Car Window

Vegetable and Boiled Peanut Stand, in front of the old Livingston Auto Repair (Georgetown, SC).

Mt. Pleasant / Charleston KOA (Mt. Pleasant, SC)

~Mt. Pleasant / Charleston KOA~

3157 Highway 17 North, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29466

Reservations: 800-562-5796 / Info: 843-849-5177

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The Mt. Pleasant/Charleston KOA sits right along Highway 17 In Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina - about 15 miles north of the Charleston peninsula.  It sits on the grounds of the privately owned 377-acre Oakland Plantation -  and on the weekends, there are hayride tours of the plantation grounds.  There is a small, private lake, and you can walk to Blackbeard's Cove Family Fun Park and enjoy adventure mini golf or  go-cartsrides.  Cabins and camping sites are available.

It's a beautiful spot along Highway 17 - with the feel of being 'away from it all' but actually close to just about everything.

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The Coburg Cow... is ready for Spoleto!

How do you know that it's time for Spoleto Festival USA?

Well, this year - it's when the Coburg Cow puts on its tutu - thanks to SpaceCraft Studios (who are located just off Highway 17 in West Ashley at 8 Avondale Avenue, Charleston, SC 29407 - check them out!).  I heard that the Coburg Cow was dressed for the event - so today I went to take a look for myself, and there she was - ready to go, drenched tutu and all!

Spoleto is a fantastic 19 day event held in Charleston, SC.  From the Spoleto Festival USA website:

Spoleto Festival USA was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, Christopher Keene, and others who sought to create an American counterpart to their annual Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. Looking for a city that would provide the charm of Spoleto as well as its wealth of theaters, churches and other performances spaces, they selected Charleston as the ideal location. The historic city provided a perfect fit: intimate enough that the Festival would captivate the entire city, yet cosmopolitan enough to provide an enthusiastic audience and robust infrastructure.

Spoleto events occur all over Charleston and surrounding areas - check out the events schedule here.

Shakey Graves, "Georgia Moon"

Chicken City at the Carolina Country Store, North Santee (Georgetown, South Carolina)

~Chicken City at the Carolina Country Store~

11725 South Frasier Street (Highway 17 South in North Santee)

Georgetown,  South Carolina  29440

(843) 545-9029

(The Carolina Country Store and Chicken City were featured by the Frugal Travel in the New York Times - read about it here).

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The Farm Store at Thornhill Farm (McClellanville, SC)

Our Local Foods

Thornhill Farm

10882 Highway 17 North, McClellanville, SC 29458

(843) 887-3500

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The Farm Store at Thornhill Farm has moved to right along Highway 17 North - so it's a breeze now to pull over and take a look around.  Please do, okay?  

Highway 17 Bridge over the Satilla River (Camden County, GA)

Boaters on the Satilla River, Camden County, Georgia - photograph by Mike McCall (of Mike McCall Photography).  Image posted with permission of the photographer.

Please check out more of Mike McCall's photographs at Lightmotif, on Facebook and on Flickr - as well as his Q&A with US 17 Coastal Highway.

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From the Satilla Riverkeeper:

The Satilla River basin lies in southeastern Georgia, draining nearly 4,000 square miles of upper and lower coastal plain habitat. It is a "blackwater" system, heavily laden with tannins and other natural leachates, lending a clear, "iced tea" color to the waters, contrasting beautifully and markedly to the numerous "sugar-sand" bars along its reaches. Numerous plants, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, many common, but among them rare, threatened, and endangered species, inhabit its waters, floodplain, tributary systems, and isolated upland wetlands. Historically, the river was part of a huge transportation and subsistence network for the expansive Creek Indian Nation, and its mosaic of habitats remains an important ecological link between the systems whose headwaters are the Okefenokee Swamp, to the south and west, the mighty Altamaha system to the north, and the estuaries of Georgia's Golden Isles to the east. Also in the past, important industries centered on timber, naval stores, and commercial fisheries flourished in the Satilla basin. Today, (primarily pulp) timber, extensive row-crop agriculture, and light manufacturing are important economic engines. The landscape and river itself are enjoyed year-round for fishing, hunting, canoeing/kayaking, and other forms of nature-based recreation. The river produces exciting largemouth bass fishing, a world-class redbreast sunfish fishery, and, in its estuary, phenomenal speckled sea trout, red drum, tarpon, shark, and flounder fishing. The Satilla/St. Andrews Sound estuary is furthermore an important pillar of penaeid shrimp (brown and white) and blue crab production, harvested commercially and recreationally.

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Darrell Scott, "A Crooked Road"