The Patriots Point Loop in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina is a 2.7 mile trail that you will not regret walking. There are several of Charleston’s attractions along this trail that you will get to discover. Including a great view of the USS Yorktown.
First you’ll park at the Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park near the visitor center. The trail listing on Alltrails only goes around a very small portion of that particular park, but I highly recommend exploring all of it. The park itself has a playground for the kids, a nice large open green space, and the Mount Pleasant Pier that many people fish from. The pier goes out right underneath the amazing Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge which makes for amazing views and pictures. Views from the pier include: downtown Charleston, container ships coming and going from the ports, sail boats, cruise ships, and hopefully a cool fish caught by a fisherman on the pier. The park has an abundance of benches in the shade or covered with a roof to provide protection from the sun.
The trail also goes by many of The College of Charleston’s athletic fields including the baseball stadium, which we were actually fortunate enough to walk by during a game. So we got to see some free baseball, which I will never complain about. No we didn’t stand there and watch much of the game but we did take in a batter or two and then walked on our way. Right next to the baseball stadium is the Charleston Battery’s stadium. The Charleston Battery is Charleston’s Pro soccer team.
The next attraction is the Cold War Submarine Memorial. Which I actually didn’t know existed so it was pretty cool finding a new attraction in Charleston. The Submarine itself has a trail that you can walk around. If you have kids they will surely want to take the walk around it.
Just past the submarine is where the trail has a fork. We chose to go clockwise around the trail which led us to the Charleston Harbor and Marina. This was an unexpected surprise as neither one of us had ever been in there. It costs to get in if you drive in, but walking in on the trail is free! Therefore, we made sure we took our time in the Marina. This is where we extended the trail a bit, as we go by the Alltrails App. The app had us walking in front of the resort, but we actually kept walking straight and went behind the resort which led us to the Marina. This was the best part of the whole walk as we got to see all the beautiful boats and yachts at the Marina.
Now for reference the Charleston Harbor and Marina is right next door to Patriot’s Point. Patriot’s Point is where the USS Yorktown is located. So from the Marina we had a spectacular view of the ship. As local’s we’ve seen it a thousand times but for a tourist this could be a fantastic photo opportunity at the end of the boardwalk at the Marina as it is super close to the ship.
Some other things of note about this trail is that it is completely paved as most of it is sidewalk. It was perfect for our little man as this trail is perfect for strollers. We recommend this trail to not just tourist but locals as well. I’m sure most Charleston County locals do not get the chance to enter the Charleston Harbor and Marina.
Here is the link to our saved walk at Patriots Point Loop: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/afternoon-walk-at-patriots-point-loop-3f647ca
Do note that this is not a 5.71 mile trail. We extended it plus the GPS on the app was a bit jumpy.
Here is another one of our favorite trails in the Charleston area: https://iveysadventures.com/stono-river-county-park-johns-island-sc/
