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Outdoor recreation and wildlife observation are popular activities at Sadlers Creek, which sits on a peninsula extending into Lake Hartwell.
The park features a lakeside campground, fishing, picnicking, hiking, meeting facility and boat access to the 56,000 acres of Lake Hartwell, one of the big Savannah River reservoirs.
Its tranquil surroundings and convenient proximity to I-85 make it a great stop for travelers and area residents alike. The park also offers easy access to the Savannah River National Scenic Highway.
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 Anderson |
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Park Video Tour
Current Weather Conditions on Lake Marion at Santee State Park
Santee State Park offers cabins, camping, biking, hiking, boating and fishing in the heart of one of the nation’s best-known outdoors destinations – Santee Cooper Country.
The park sits along Lake Marion, one of the two lakes (the other’s Moultrie) that gave birth to America’s inland striped bass fishery. Together, the lakes cover more than 170,000 acres and now also are known for their abundant populations of huge catfish.
The park’s rondette cabins, including 10 on piers over the lake, have been hosting outdoorsmen and families for generations. A community meeting building, with its large, screened-in grilling facility, also attracts groups.
Out in the lake across from the park is Lake Marion’s flooded cypress forest. Pontoon boat tours into the lake’s swampy headwaters are based out of the park’s marina/park store.
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 Santee |
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Sesquicentennial State Park, situated in the middle of the Sandhills region, features a beautiful 30-acre lake surrounded by trails and picnic areas.
The park’s proximity to downtown Columbia and interstate highways attracts both local residents and travelers.
Sesqui, as it’s affectionately known, is heavily used for family reunions and group campouts. It also features dog park and well-attended interpretive nature programs, as well as a dormitory, meeting facility and ropes course popular for corporate retreats and team-building.
Once a drive out to the country but now a green space in the Columbia suburbs, the park was originally built by the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Evidence of their craftsmanship remains today, including in the distinctive white stone blocks that mark the front gate.
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 Columbia |
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Table Rock Mountain provides a towering backdrop for an upcountry retreat at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Table Rock State Park features two lakes, a campground, mountain cabins, meeting facilities and its historic, renovated lodge.
The park has been one of South Carolina’s most popular since it was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Many of its structures are now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Table Rock was home to one of the state’s first formal nature education programs and now serves as a trailhead for the 80-mile long Foothills Trail through the wilderness along the Blue Ridge Escarpment. Trails through the forested park also include one that leads to the top of Table Rock Mountain itself.
The park also hosts a visitors center near the main gate along S.C. 11, the Cherokee Foothills National Scenic Highway.
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 Pickens |
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Listen & Learn About Spanish Moss
The canoe trail at Woods Bay is subject to fluctuating water levels. At times the waters are too low for navigation. Please contact the park directly for current trail conditions.
Woods Bay State Natural Area offers a close-up look at one of the last remaining large Carolina Bays on the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Experience the splendor and diversity of the cypress-tupelo swamp first-hand from the 500-foot boardwalk, or paddle your way amidst towering trees on the 1-mile canoe trail.
Habitats at 1,590-acre Woods Bay also include marsh, sand hills, oak-hickory forest and a shrub bog. More than 75 species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians are found here, along with more than 150 species of birds, changing with the seasons.
Come see alligators from the boardwalk and hear the "cu-tuck, cu-tuck, cu-tuck" of carpenter frogs as their calls echo through the trees. Take a hike on the nature trail as it encircles the historic mill pond and imagine yourself back in the mid-19th century when water from the bay powered two wooden grist mills.
Visitors also enjoy fishing, wildlife-viewing, photography and picnicking at the park.
Carolina Bays, elliptical depressions of various size scattered along the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, are among the Earth’s natural mysteries. Come check out Woods Bay State Natural Area and try to decide for yourself what created these intriguing natural wonders.
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 Olanta |
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Set against the calm, winding South Edisto River, Aiken State Natural Area is a popular destination for the family or a budding naturalist.
The beautiful park in rural Aiken County offers canoeing in the river, peaceful picnicking, fishing in the river and the park’s spring-fed lakes, campground and trailside camping and hiking trails.
The 1,000-acre site is uniquely diverse, combining a blackwater river and swamp, bottomland forest and dry sandhill pine forest.
Aiken State Natural Area also has its place in history. It was built during the Great Depression by an African American detachment of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Interpretive signage tells their story and their work can still be seen in some of the park’s original structures and features.
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 Windsor |
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Andrew Jackson State Park combines history, art and community activities into a setting that has made it one of the S.C. State Park Service’s most popular attractions.
The only park in the system dedicated to a U.S. president, Andrew Jackson State Park features a museum that details the boyhood of the nation’s seventh president, who grew up here in what then was known as the Waxhaws of the South Carolina backcountry.
A striking highlight of the park grounds is the bold equestrian statue of “Old Hickory” sculpted by Anna Hyatt Huntington of Brookgreen Gardens fame. Living history programs with docents in period garb are included in the park’s programming.
The Lancaster County park also has a replica of a late 18th-century one-room schoolhouse, an amphitheatre that serves as home to a well-attended bluegrass festival each year and other community gatherings, as well as a campground, fishing lake, picnicking facilities and trails.
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 Lancaster |
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Baker Creek State Park is closed for the Winter season from October 1st, 2009 until March 1th, 2010. This seasonal closure enables the SC State Park Service to provide better
stewardship of our resources and maximize the efficiency of
our park staff during this period of low demand. Several
nearby state park campgrounds --Hickory Knob State Resort Park and Hamilton Branch State Recreation Area--are open for camping during this time.
Looking to leave city life behind for a few days. How about a secluded venue to enjoy nature? Baker Creek State Park, located on the shores of Lake Thurmond, is the ideal location for a lengthy camping trip or a relaxing swim.
Along with its campgrounds and lake access, Baker Creek is also known for its 10-mile mountain bike trail, where riders can test their skills as they enjoy the park’s stately pine forest. The park also is a great place to observe wildlife, including waterfowl, wild turkeys, deer and curious squirrels.
Baker Creek also has a large lakefront pavilion ideal for family get-togethers and other gatherings. It’s also just a few minutes from Hickory Knob State Resort Park, with its golf course, restaurant and other full-service resort offerings.
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 McCormick |
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Barnwell State Park may be the best fishing hole in South Carolina that not many folks know about.
A traditional state park primarily serving the people of Barnwell County, Barnwell State Park offers camping and cabins, picnicking and playgrounds, and a community center long favored for meetings and reunions.
There’s also a nature trail that winds around a pair of nice-sized ponds that many locals know hold a good population of bream and bass, some of them surprisingly large.
Barnwell State Park is one of 16 state parks in South Carolina built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression to provide jobs for the men who built them and recreational opportunities for the people who live nearby.
Such as great fishing. Guess the secret’s out!
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 Blackville |
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Calhoun Falls State Recreation Area sits astride several pine-covered points jutting into Lake Russell, one of the least-developed large reservoirs in South Carolina.
Besides providing access to the big Savannah River lake, the park offers camping, picnicking, a tennis court, playground, seasonal swimming area and hiking.
Picturesque views of the lake and surrounding forest are another highlight. Area anglers know well, too, that Lake Russell holds large numbers of bass, bream, catfish and crappie.
And that’s no fish story.
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 Calhoun Falls |
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