The best GROUP camping near
Abbeville , SOUTH CAROLINA

We stayed here this past weekend and absolutely loved it. Our site was #40 and it was right on the lake. There is a skunk that comes up to your site at night but he doesnt bother anyone as long as you dont scare it. Very beautiful and peaceful campground. Friendly staff. Definitely going to return again.

Victoria Bryant State Park is probably one of my most frequented camping spots in the last few years. All of the tent sites are sheltered platforms, with electricity, potable water and an overhead light. Rain or shine, you can have a good time (and stay dry) at Victoria Bryant. There are only about 8 platforms, and one is ADA only, so they book up quick. They are all spaced pretty far apart, privacy isn't too hard to maintain (except maybe site 7&8). 1-4 are down a hill, 4 being the furthest away at about 40 feet, down the steepest incline. There are facilities right across the parking lot, that have always been clean and well maintained, and heated in the colder months. Camp hosts and office have firewood. There are several miles of trails that are lower difficulty, save for some hilly spots. In October, the park does a pretty cool little haunted trail. There's obvious reasons we enjoy VBSP, staying dry in the rain, nice, dense forested areas, and awesome campgrounds make it an easy choice.

We camped at Baker Creek (relatively local to us at only 30 miles away) for the first time 7-9 October 2020. We went for kayaking and mountain biking as well as just some time away. Baker Creek is off the main body of Clarks Hill Lake/Lake Strom Thurmond and as such is much quieter than some of the other campgrounds (e.g. Elijah Clark).

Pros:

• A smallish campground with many sites on the water or at least water-accessible.
• Clean bathhouses
• Super friendly Rangers and Campground hosts.
• Quiet on land and from boat traffic noise
• Comparatively inexpensive

Cons: 

• Showing its age, it needs some work. Appears a bit run down with erosion evident on many sites.
• No fire rings although fires are permitted (previous campers have built makeshift/ad hoc fire rings using the plentiful rocks in the area).
• Can seem cramped with 50 sites in arelatively small area.
• No T-Mobile call service in the area.

The Good News (Renovations!):

Speaking with the Campground Host, and later one of the rangers, here are some developments about Baker Creek SP that will definitely be of interest. 

1. The park is closing the end of October 2020 as usual but is not projected to open in 2021 until 1 May once renovations are complete. 

2. Renovations to the campground include modernizing the sites which included reducing the number of sites from 50 to 30, increasing the size of the sites, installing 50A outlets and fire rings at a minimum. 

3. Once the park reopens, it will be open YEAR ROUND. 

We will definitely be returning after they reopen and I'll post a new review.

We travel and camp at many places across South Carolina but this was our first visit to Calhoun Falls State Park. What a gem! Beautiful scenery, large, spacious lakeside campsites. We enjoyed privacy, lake access from our campsite, and spectacular sunset views over the lake. Rangers and staff at park store are friendly and helpful. We can’t wait to go back.

Spent this past weekend at Ridge Road Campground. This is an amazing campground. The staff is wonderful. The entire campground is spotless, clean, and exceptionally well maintained. We were in site #67. All the sites are large and well spaced. Tons of trees and most sites are on right on the lake. The water is amazingly clear. If you look at my previous reviews, we’ve camped at many campgrounds around the Southeast this year and we have found that George State Parks and COE campgrounds are at the top of our list. Ridge Road is now in our top 5 overall. I highly recommend this campground if you like quiet, relaxation, kayaking, fishing, or boating in general.

We stayed at Lake Hartwell State park in stie 98 which was a lovely lakeside site.  The sites on either side (96, 99) all shared a path to a small beach with lake access.  Most other sites in the Wiggins Loop did not seem to have lake access- exceptions being tent sites and the cabins.  There was some privacy and the sites were decently spread out, but since they were staggered a bit you could definitely see into other sites.

Nice camp store with helpful staff and firewood for sale.

Place was packed over the weekend but cleared out Sunday.

Cool campground surrounded by water. I give it 4 stars mainly because the bathrooms were in disrepair and the hiking trail was poorly marked.

Nice campground. We stayed in the primitive camping area with our adventure trailer. Right on the water, it was a great site. Ants can be a huge problem though during the summer. 

N.B. As of 3 August 2020, Primitive Camping and Semi-Hookup (Electric Only) Camping areas  are closed at Pointes West. RV Camping is open, for local traffic only. RV's must contain a restroom. No visitors.

Winfield is a compartively little-known USACE campground situated on a peninsula near the more heavily-traffic Mistletoe State Park. Quiet and peaceful, it's tucked up the Little River and therefore not on the main body of Clarks Hill Lake (Lake Strom Thurmond, if you're form South Carolina) which sees a good deal of boat traffic (pontoon boats in particular) in the summer months. Great for water activities (kayaking, SUP, etc) with awesome evening views.

I’ve camped at Petersburg multiple times of the past 5 years and generally love it. Bartram Trail, terrific mountain for biking and hiking passes through the property. Some of the sites are stellar.

What I noticed on my most recent trip is that the quality of maintenance has declined. The restrooms on our loop weren’t really cleaned deeply over our 4 night stay with used band aids in the corner or the shower stall. I alerted two staff members about the leaking spigot in our site and that was never addressed.

I’m returning in early November with a few friends for some mountain biking and hope things improve.