Whooping Crane Pond, Hilton Head Island

Around Whooping Crane Pond

The Boardwalk and the Nancy Cathcart Path

The walk starts on the Nancy Cathcart Path, a trail through dry pine forest with some old hardwoods among the pines. Where the ground drops away toward the swamp, the path meets the Whooping Crane Boardwalk, which runs on for more than 1,100 feet over the water to the heart of the conservancy. The boardwalk keeps you above the swamp without disturbing it, and there are places along it to stop and watch.

The sign at the start asks you to be considerate of the wildlife and to walk and talk softly, and that is good advice: the quieter you are, the more you see. The Land Trust’s signs along the path and the boardwalk name the plants and animals around you.

Wildlife at Whooping Crane Pond

The pond sits in a shallow valley between two old lines of dunes, from a time when this was the shoreline. Most of it is black gum, or tupelo, standing in shallow water, with open “savannah” swamp in places and a band of head-high shrubs where the swamp meets dry ground. That mix supports about 75 kinds of plants and 100 kinds of animals. Since 1986 the Hilton Head Public Service District has piped in treated reclaimed water to help restore it.

Wading birds are the reason most people bring a camera. Visitors have photographed great blue herons, great egrets, black-crowned and yellow-crowned night herons and black-bellied whistling ducks from the boardwalk, and reviewers mention snakes and the odd alligator. One visitor who had spent a month on the island saw birds here that they hadn’t seen anywhere else.

Who Can Visit the Whooping Crane Conservancy

The conservancy is inside the Hilton Head Plantation gate, and it is not open to the public. The Land Trust limits it to residents of Hilton Head Plantation and of Sea Pines, and the plantation’s own rules open the boardwalk to residents and their guests from sunrise to sunset. Residents carry the association’s photo ID here. Tenants on leases under nine months don’t get one, so they visit with the owner.

If you are staying with a friend in the plantation, go with them. If you live elsewhere, the Land Trust asks you to email it at hhilandtrust@hhilandtrust.org, and its members who give $500 or more a year get a private guided tour of the conservancy. Sort out the visit before you drive to the gate.

Rules on the Boardwalk

• Open from sunrise to sunset.

• No pets.

• No bikes on the path or the boardwalk.

• Walk and talk softly: the sign at the start asks you to be considerate of the wildlife.

Finding Whooping Crane Pond

The pond is in the middle of the plantation, among the neighborhoods near Bear Creek Golf Club, and it isn’t easy to find: one visitor took a wrong turn and had to ask the way, and another left a review asking for directions. It is pin 9 on our Hilton Head Plantation map, and your host will know the way to the start of the path.

More Conservancies in Hilton Head Plantation

Whooping Crane Pond is one of several wild places the plantation has kept. The Cypress Swamp Conservancy is two more freshwater wetlands with a boardwalk of its own, where pets, bikes and jogging are not allowed. The Salt Marsh Conservancy is a state-owned estuary off Port Royal Sound, and at low tide a sandbar joins Pine Island, the community’s beach at Dolphin Head Park, to Ribaut Island. There is another boardwalk at Hickory Forest, and about 10 miles of leisure paths tie the neighborhoods to all of them. The amenities section of our Hilton Head Plantation guide covers the rest.

Not staying in the plantation? The Sea Pines Forest Preserve has boardwalks over its own wetlands and lets day visitors in with a gate pass, and Pinckney Island, just off the bridge, is a national wildlife refuge open to everyone.