They say April showers bring May flowers.
But here on Hilton Head Island, you get a bonus: April showers bring evening magic!
Let the rain do its thing all day. I’ll wait. Because the real show doesn’t start until the clouds break and the sun dips low over the Atlantic, and there’s no better place to watch it than Folly Field Beach.
By late afternoon, the last shower has come and gone. The Carolina jessamine vines are dripping, their yellow trumpets shining like little spotlights along the dunes. The palmettos stand tall and freshly washed, and the air smells like salt, pluff mud, and that sweet, damp earth scent that only April can deliver.
I grab my favorite hoodie and head for the Folly Field access path.
The sand is still cool beneath my feet, packed firm from the rain. The gulls have settled down. The egrets are wading in the tidal pools near the shoreline, catching the last light. And the sky?
The sky is just getting started.
What happens next is the reason I will always call HHI home.
Coral. Lavender. Molten gold bleeding into soft pink. The clouds catch fire in colors that don’t seem possible until you see them with your own eyes. The Atlantic mirrors it all, so that you can’t tell where the sky ends and the sea begins. I walk along the waterline, toes in the foam, head tilted back, feeling like I’m walking through a painting that keeps changing by the minute.
The sea oats sway. The wax myrtles shimmer. A brown pelican glides by, looking just as impressed as I am. In the distance, the iconic beautiful homes of begin to fade as a gentle welcome to the evening.
That’s the thing about April on Folly Field Beach. The showers do their work, washing the world clean, freshening the marshes, giving every blade of dune grass a good rinse, so that when evening arrives, the colors are sharper, richer, more alive than anywhere else.
It’s a shore thang!
So yes, give me the April showers. I’ll take them. Because I know what comes after: a Folly Field sunset that stops you mid-step, a stretch of beach all to yourself, and a sky so beautiful you find yourself texting photos to everyone you know with the simple caption:
“Are you seeing this?”
P.S. By the way, if you find a perfect sand dollar on Folly Field at sunset. The Atlantic left it for your viewing but leave it in its natural surroundings or face the consequences of a huge fine for picking it up. If you want to see these incredible sunsets, arrive a little before the sunset. Parking is very tight at Folly Field Park, so plan to pay $3 per hour with a $15 daily cap. Weekends cost $20 regardless of how long you visit. Save this post for your next HHI trip.
See you along the shores…
Leave a Reply