Jocassee Gorges Wildlife Management Area

Lots of opportunities for kayaking, hiking. Not an easy place for first timers to get into. No swim access to the lake. Small campground loop. Forested and moderately strenuous hiking trails.

We are from TN, but my family has lived in the Upstate area for a long time. My family just recently found out about this place a few years ago. Well this was our first time out on the water and wow it was beautiful. Clean and clear water like we haven’t experienced before. Beautiful water falls! Also Nicely taken care of facilities! We couldn’t have asked for a better place to spend our visit. We plan to bring our camper in the future and explore all this area has to offer.

This small primitive campsite is located near the NC side of Jocassee. A lot of people hike in to these campsites via the foothills trail but it’s a very long hike so we carefully boated in from the Devil’s fork side. There’s no water spigots, bathrooms, or amenities other than a fire ring, and cell service is spotty so this is truly a down-to-basics getaway. It’s one of the most beautiful areas and we love Jocassee for its amazing scenery- very little houses, it’s a deep cold lake and the cleanest lake in SC. There are so many gorgeous waterfalls on the lake! They have a bridge crossing over the river, but you can also fish in the river. They also allow hunting. It’s a very quiet area right along the foothills trail and I highly recommend camping here, or even just staying the day!

There are so many campsite available through Jocassee. Currently my favorite campsites lie off of the Canebrake Trail and connect with the Foothills Trail. My family and I mainly hike to the first-come-first-serve campsites but there are also a lot of boaters tying off at the shoreline. It features two bridges and a waterfall/river. The reservable campsites right across from the concession building on the other side of the lake are also well kept and are considered drive-in which is useful if you plan to stay only a few days, but they are too close to one another for my taste. I would recommend reserving campsites plenty of time ahead as it gets filled up quickly, especially on holidays and during the summer.

My only complaint was that the grounds could have been cleaner but I’m sure part of the blame is on the poor weathers we have been having for the past few weeks. Fortunately for us the poor weather also scared off fellow campers so we ended up being the only ones in sight.