Sunflowers and Shade | West Union, SC

Deep in the country in South Carolina, there is a place called West Union and it is home to Little Crane Creek Farm. During the summer months on this farm, they have a sunflower festival.

Everyone that knows me knows I love sunflowers and they are my favorite flower... so when I saw the advertisement for the festival I knew a road trip was in store. My best friend Jazmine, my boyfriend Adrian, and myself loaded up my car and set out on an adventure.

When we arrived, rows of sunflowers filled the scene, each one standing tall towards the sky.

They had tons of fun games and activities for the whole family to participate in. They even had "photo stations" set up - which was awesome because they provided the props to make your photos even more special!

Now I know a lot of you are wondering..."Sunflowers and Shade," what an interesting name for this post that is mostly about sunflowers, but there is one more thing to add.

After we had enjoyed the activities and harvesting our own sunflowers to take home; we found ourselves sitting under the shelter, sipping homemade lemonade, and talking to the owners of the Little Crane Creek Farm.

They were happy to hear that we had so much fun making memories and then started telling us a little more about the farm and surrounding areas. The man told us since we came all the way from Charlotte (3.5 hours away) that we should stop by and see this huge train tunnel that was nearby.

We thought it was unusual, but we all love exploring so we set out on another adventure.

It was called the Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel. It is an incomplete railroad tunnel that was for the Blue Ridge Railroad and is located in the Sumter National Forest.

The entrance to the tunnel does certainly give off an eery vibe, but we continued one into the tunnel. It was super dark and damp. You could hear water dripping - at this point I was so scared, even though there were other families there. We had to use our phone's flashlights to navigate the tunnel.

Finally, we had reached the end. It was barred up with a metal fence with locks so that no one could get past that point. The fence itself was covered in graffiti.

The coolest part of the tunnel was the walk back towards the daylight. It made for beautiful silhouette photos.

It was truly one of my favorite trips that I have been on.

I keep in touch on Facebook with the Little Crane Creek Farm and am ready to get to go back and visit the sunflower patch again.

Due to COVID-19 they postponed the festival until late August. While I won't get go for the Fourth like I did this past summer, but I will still be going to see the beautiful flowers.