CAMPSITE REVIEWS

When I’m searching for our next trip location, I thoroughly explore the campground/park maps, Google earth, and/or Google maps before I make reservations. Sometimes I also find a detailed (and much appreciated) campground review which really helps in my decision-making process. I like to know that after driving for several hours (or even days) to our chosen destination that we won’t be disappointed. Call me cautious, but spontaneity is not something I generally apply to overnight trips! There are also several great apps (such as Campendium, recreation.gov, ParkAdvisor, etc.) that help with campground selection. But I’ll also share our experiences and impressions here …

MYAKKA RIVER STATE PARK (FL)

13208 STATE ROAD 72, SARASOTA, FL 34241
(941) 361-6511 | WEBSITE

Myakka River State Park does have a scenic otherworldly quality to it. A mix of spindly palms and twisted gnarly oaks shade large areas including our Big Flats campground. The prairie areas are home to wading birds and gators. And swimming is prohibited here (Um … yeah, that should be a no-brainer).

The campground is quiet and quintessential Florida. Our site (number 8) backed on a swamp. It’s late October and I haven’t noticed a single mosquito yet, but the gators are abundant in this park. Our campsite even came with a warning sign (gulp). More abundant than the gators are the vultures. Not sure why they gather in such large numbers.

Campsite 8 is swampfront. Sites across the loop face the prairie, but they are close to a road too. If I had to choose after seeing the campground I would pick 10 or 11. The sites are all relatively level and easy to back into in Big Flats. The center of the loop is empty—just sprawling oaks draped with Spanish moss, and ample room to negotiate a back-in. There are three campgrounds in this park and also palm log cabins built in the 1930s. We stayed in one of these cabins many years ago and enjoyed it.

Hiking is decent, with one notable feature being a canopy walkway in the treetops of a oak and palm hammock. There is also a bird observation boardwalk. The concession area offers pontoon boat or tram tours in addition to bicycle and kayak rentals.

CHERAW STATE PARK (SC)

100 STATE PARK RD, CHERAW, SC 29520
(843) 537-9656 | WEBSITE

Cheraw State Park offers a small and scenic (if not private) campground along Lake Juniper. A short hike along a lakeside boardwalk takes campers to a recreation area with boat rentals, a swimming area and picnic pavilions. The park also features an 18-hole golf course.

The dirt roads throughout the camping area were very rutted and needed to be taken slowly. A friendly campground host was available to check us in and offered firewood for sale as the campsites were separate from the park and no office was provided for the 17-site campground. An IGA grocery store near the park does offer adequate supplies, if needed.

Our 3-star review of this campground was perhaps a result of timing. We visited the first week of March during foggy and rainy weather. Weekdays in the camping area were quiet and peaceful. We enjoyed our boardwalk hike into the park in complete solitude. Later in the day we observed several golfers who braved the course despite drizzle. We’re not golfers, but the course did appear beautiful and popular. Our one weekend night of camping was more than enough though. Our visit coincided with a local road race for cars and motorcycles. A fifth wheel towing a (very loud) race car arrived that Friday and the car roared out late at night and returned around midnight. The campground filled up with weekend campers and we found empty beer bottles in our campsite the next morning. Based on our camping experience here, I would only recommend weekday camping in this park, but our visit was probably unusual.

EDISTO BEACH STATE PARK (SC)

8377 STATE CABIN RD, EDISTO ISLAND, SC 29438
(843) 869-2756 | WEBSITE

At Edisto Beach State Park, you have a choice of oceanside camping with sparse foliage, but convenient beach access or in the scenic Live Oak Campground farther inland with lush foliage that offers more privacy, some with salt marsh views. We chose the Live Oak Campground, leaving our camping trailer behind and driving our truck to explore the beach areas which were separated from our campground by a narrow 2-lane highway I wouldn’t have wanted to hike.

While the office only offered firewood and a few sparse snack items, there was a Bi-Lo grocery store around the corner that offered anything one could need while camping. We enjoyed hiking to the end of the peaceful beach, then stopping at the Coot’s Bar & Grill which was literally right on the water with seating on a pier and indoor seating with views of the beach we’d just walked.

We enjoyed the trails (be sure to bring a map while hiking because they’re not easy to navigate). The Live Oak campsites were peaceful and scenic, although there was some highway noise that detracted a bit from the camping ambience. Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Edisto Beach State Park, but found that the three nights we stayed there was more than enough. (Note: tap water on the island has a high salt content and while considered safe to drink, most will prefer to buy/bring bottled water.)

HUNTING ISLAND STATE PARK (SC)

2555 SEA ISLAND PKWY, HUNTING ISLAND, SC 29920
(843) 838-2011 | WEBSITE

We stayed in this campground in early February and although it was still quite chilly, the campground was only about a third full and we encountered very few people on our hikes. The campground, which can apparently be quite buggy during the warmer months, was pest-free during the winter. The sites closest to the beach offered little privacy, with the exception of a few primo spots that backed on the beach, but also offered a nice privacy screen of foliage (I would try to book site #95 or #96 if I returned). Sites on the farthest loop from the beach offered more privacy and foliage if that’s your thing (sites 155-200).

One of the most stunning aspects of this park (and the reason for its 5-campfire review) is the haunting and unique quality of its driftwood-strewn beaches. Fascinating to both photographers and hikers, the trees are quite dramatic—especially at sunrise. In some areas, they are so dense that it requires some limbo-esque acrobatics to walk through them. When we visited during the winter, the beach was so little traveled that we rarely encountered others on our hikes. Walking onto certain areas of the beach offered an almost post-apocalyptic kind of solitude. I found these trees amusing to sketch and enjoyed some plein air painting on the beach.

The bathrooms and showers were small, but clean. The campground office offered a rather large and well-stocked store with camping supplies, souvenirs and snacks. The area near the lighthouse also offered a store with souvenirs and refreshments. The west side of the park featured a salt marsh boardwalk with seats at the end to take in a dramatic sunset (which we had all to ourselves the evening we went).

HUNTINGTON BEACH STATE PARK (SC)

16148 OCEAN HWYMURRELLS INLET, SC 29576
(843) 237-4440 | WEBSITE

Huntington Beach State Park can be a nature, history and art-lover’s dream. While the campground is close to the beach, no sites have a view of it. The three miles of beaches in the park are wide and clean.

The RV campground offers 107 standard sites with water and electric in addition to 66 full-hookup sites with water, sewer and electric. Wireless internet is available, but only in close proximity to the bathhouses.

The hiking trails in this park were short and not terribly interesting. For that reason, I felt the park didn’t warrant a full 5 stars. The park is also known for birding, and over 300 species of birds are claimed to have been sighted there. We did notice a lot of people attempting to photograph the very few birds we encountered there. I imagine early spring is not ideal for bird viewing though. It would also be fun to return in the summer for sea turtle nesting season.

The artist appeal to this park is high. Park visitors may tour Atalaya, the winter home of Archer and Anna Huntington Hyatt. Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973) was an award-winning American sculptor, famous for her animal sculptures. The Moorish-style “castle” is quirky and interesting. Self-guided and docent-led tours are available. I paid a small extra fee for the recorded tour and enjoyed it. An art festival is held annually at Atalya in late September.

Across the Highway from the park is Brookgreen Gardens. The 9,127-acre nature preserve, botanical and sculpture gardens were founded in 1931 by Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington. The garden’s Live Oak Allée features 250-year-old Oak trees planted in the 1700s when the land was rice plantations. The sculpture gardens contain over 2,000 American figurative sculpture works by 425 artists. This place made the trip for me! Beautiful, scenic and photogenic. The tickets aren’t cheap, but are good for seven days.

If you love seafood, be sure to visit Murrells Inlet (considered the seafood capital of South Carolina) just north of the park where there are dozens of waterfront restaurants to choose from!

STONE MOUNTAIN STATE PARK (NC)

3042 FRANK PARKWAY, ROARING GAP, NC 28668
(336) 957-8185 | WEBSITE

The campground at Stone Mountain State Park is spacious and wide open which is perfect for someone like my husband who likes to put up an antenna and make ham radio contacts and less ideal for someone like me who adores private, wooded sites. When we visited in early November, the campground was less than a quarter full though, so the campground was quite peaceful with peak-autumn colorful maple trees peppered throughout.

The stream running through the Loop B campground offers a lovely natural “white noise” that provides soft background music at night even with closed windows. The bathrooms were clean with private hot showers. Overall, our camping situation was agreeable and if I returned I’d try to book site #55 or #56 which were creekside and tucked into more private wooded nooks.

The park offers a variety of scenic trails of moderate to strenuous difficulty, one leading to the summit of Stone Mountain, others offering Blue Ridge Mountain views and some with scenic waterfalls. Trout fishing is available in streams throughout the park. There is even rock-climbing available for more adventurous campers.

UWHARRIE NATIONAL FOREST (NC)

789 NORTH CAROLINA 24, TROY, NC 27371
(910) 576-6391 | WEBSITE

We visited Uwharrie National Forest in early February. The dirt roads were rough and rutted enough that we had to take them very slowly. Camping reservations may be made online at reservations.gov, or at unmanned fee stations onsite. Each campground had a host available, although the one at the Arrowhead campground couldn’t answer simple questions on where to obtain water. Several campsites had electric hookups, but none had water. Several drinking water spigots could be found along the campground road, but none were threaded for filling RV tanks. We eventually found a threaded drinking water spigot at the dump station near the entrance to the Arrowhead Campground. Most sites at the Arrowhead location were cramped and offered little privacy. However, on weekdays during the winter only a few sites were being used.

The campground at Badin Lake was more scenic and also had many open campsites. This site, however, offered no water or electricity hookups. Drinking water spigots and bathrooms with showers were available and most sites can accommodate the average RV on level gravel sites. With many lakeside sites available, you could launch canoes and kayaks from your campsite. The only water/dump station for RVs is located at the Arrowhead Campground.

All the sites at both campgrounds offered a picnic table, fire pit and grill. Most seemed quite level and there were a few pull-through sites at each location. The bathrooms were relatively clean. The park also features horse campground and a group campground. The park was open to hunters September through January. There was also a boat ramp and picnic area at the lake. We didn’t find the trails terribly interesting or the winter scenery to be ideal for photography, but this park would probably appeal more to those interested in hunting, equestrian trails and boating.

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