Best Tent Camping near Aiken, SC

We camped in one of the tent only walk-in sites located on a peninsula jutting into the lake. We had a ton of stuff, not realizing it was an uphill and pretty long trek, but it was totally worth it. We had the whole place to ourselves, no neighbors, in late March. The sun setting over the water was beautiful, it was quiet even as a few motor boats came in for the night. There is a tiny beach on the tip of the peninsula, picnic tables, and an outhouse. It was my favorite spot of everywhere we stayed on an Alabama-Georgia-South Carolina roadtrip including AirBnB and bed and breakfast.

This is a review of the four walk-in tent sites at Mistletoe State Park.  I personally stayed in #4 and had a look at the others. 

The best site is definitely #2 -- feet from the water, spacious, suitable for more than one tent or hammock (better for tents as it is mostly open, but there are places for hammocks along the edges). 

Site #4 is probably second best, better for a hammocks probably (which is what I had) as no great level ground. It is not right on the water but has it's own private path to the water(couple hundred feet to the water).

Sites #1 & #3 do not really have access to the water without climbing down something steeply dangerous or through thick trees.  (The water access from the other sites is right in the middle of those other sites so you couldn't really share that unless they are empty or occupied by friends.)  Still #1 is a pretty good site.  #3 is the least interesting and smallest, but still secluded -- I wouldn't call any of these bad.

None of these sites have groomed tent pads -- just gravelly ground.   They do each have a table, fire pit, and lantern pole.  #1 & #2 are best for tents.  There is good separation between all sites.  Sites #2 & #3 are within shouting distance of each other and you'd be able to see tents, etc at one from the other.  There is an outhouse between sites #1 & #2, and another another between sites #3 & #4.  It is a 5 minute (or so) walk to the real bathroom (which also has showers) back in the main campground.

Other than the lake itself at sites #2 & #4, I didn't see any dedicated water source for these sites.  (The lake is silty -- pre-filtering recommended if you are using a filter.)  So you'd have to bring in water or get it from the bathroom area or maybe from an empty RV site which all have spigots.  You'll have to pack out your trash, and there are definitely critters around that will get in your trash so it should be secured somehow.  (Hanging it from the lantern pole isn't good enough -- you'll wake up to find a hole in the bag and it strewn around, ask me how I know.)

Everything in the park was very clean and well-maintained, although when I was here in September (during the week), the whole place was basically deserted anyway.

The water access at sites #2 & #4 is nice but it is not a real beach -- it is all large rocks for the most part and they were very slippery even when dry so be careful.  The water level was also extremely low when I was there so some of those rocks are probably covered by water earlier in the year.

I would like to give an honest review of this campground because I rely on other peoples’ reviews to choose campgrounds that I have not been to before. I cannot in good faith recommend this campground to anyone. I called the week ahead to confirm that reservations were not required. I spoke with a lovely lady who shared reservations were not required and that their campground never fills up. (However I will have to say the night that I arrived, there were very few spaces left.) I told her I had read good reviews and that we were local and were excited to come.
My first impression - I would prefer to camp under the stars. Instead, at this campground you camp under a light pole at each campsite. We also like to have a fire ring to have a fire going to cook our food, but not at this campground. There’s a community fire, and no fire rings at the campsites. But the most deplorable part of our short stay was the treatment received from the owner. We arrived after dark, in the fog and after setting up our camper, we went to plug it in only to find that there was no wiring in the electrical box. Unfortunately we did not notice the small, paper sign, wet and faded stating that the electric box was out of order. When we spoke to the owner, he had no professional courtesy at all. He was the rudest person I have ever met. He blamed us for not reading his wet, faded sign that could not be seen in the dark. He did not offer to help, but instead raged on and noticed that we had South Carolina plates. He then said we weren’t even supposed to be there, that their campground is for out of state campers. I have never heard of such a thing and not to mention, the lady I spoke to earlier in the week knew I had said we were local and did not mention this policy on the phone. If I I am paying to camp, I expect a working campsite. If it does not have working electricity or sewer, it should be roped off so that people know not to park there. We packed up and left because of the unprofessional behavior of this campground owner. If you are looking for a place to camp, I would highly recommend skipping Sweetwater Lake Campground and checking out one of our State Park campgrounds instead. They have working campsites under the stars with electricity, water, fire rings, and park rangers that care about your camping experience.

I spent a great couple of days here mid-week in mid-June. There was one other occupied campsite (out of 9) the first night and I had the whole place to myself the second. No showers, no wi-fi or cell sevice, no dump station, no electricity, and a common water spigot-just what I wanted. No reservations either. 

There were people who came to fish in the pond (more of a pond than a lake) and I had a nice swim.. There are two trails. A short one (about a mile) around the pond and a longer 5.6 mile loop. Great trail.

Be sure to check the website for problems beforehand.   The water was out when I was there (actually it was restored just as I pulled out!!!).

So all in all, I great place if you want a rough campsite with few others around.

The main campground is flat making it easy to back up campers or RV’s in slots. Some pull through spots. We were tent camping and choose a walk in slot. 27, 28 & 29. Our site was 29 it is about 100 yards from the main campground down a single lane sandy road that leads into a wooded area. We saw vehicles on the other 2 spots and decided to just pull in by our space as well. I really like the walk in spaces because they are away from the main campground. I do like seeing stars at night but the tree canopy blocked them. The spigot on this spot was leaky. We did watch chickadees take an evening bath in the puddle. We noticed some little pieces of broken glass on the tent pad. The bathhouse was clean. The 28 acre lake and trails throughout the property are well maintained. Signs to watch out for gators are posted. We saw 2. The springs are so pretty and clear, so many turtles and fish to see. I would’ve liked to paddle board in the springs but wasn’t sure if that was permitted. We did paddle board and kayak in the lake.
If you are up to a history lesson the Camp Lawton museum is a bargain at $2 ! It is very informative. We had lovely weather and would return in the fall or spring. Summer may be to buggy and hot.

Our favorite park is Mistletoe, a GA state owned park. This park is just a few miles away from Mistletoe and we only stayed here because we could not get a site at Mistletoe. In the end, we are glad that we did as this park is about 35% less expensive than Mistletoe and provides the same great lake views (ok, Mistletoe is still our favorite, but for the money this is a no brainer).

We stayed on two sites as nothing was available for our entire duration. So, we started on site 38 and then moved to 58 after a couple of days (we can be quite fast at breaking down/setting up for in-park moves).

Site 38 was interesting because we had about 100 whitetail deer in our back yard every night. The camp host apparently was feeding them, and he set up spot lights so that they could be watched as they ate. The deer had no fear (not sure that is good), but I am sure the appreciated the food. The only bad side to this is that the lights stayed on very late and it was impossible to block the light from our windows. I can overlook this, though.

Site 38 was large enough and had big, flat, surface for the picnic table, fire ring, camper, and truck. Beyond this pad there was not much distance before you got to the next site, which just had a tent camper (who mostly was gone because this time we visited during a VERY cold spell and I don't think the tent camper would have survived the night!).

Site 38 had views of the water, kind of like a finger cover, but it was not very close to the camper. Still nice though as the walk through the woods to the water was easy. 

We moved to site 58 after a couple of days and it was directly on the water. This site was smaller than 38, and was only one of a handful of RV sites that are situated in an yurt camping area (if you have family that does not have an RV, you could stay in your RV and they could stay in the really upscale yurts!). 

The weather, as noted already, was very cold and moving to a true waterfront lot made going outside something only for the brave! It was 40 degrees with 60 mph wind gusts that day...kind of fun!

We walked around to see what the park had on that side, and it included a nice sandy beach, picnic tables under the shade, and a really cool primitive camping area that was out on a peninsula.

As noted at the start, a nice park for the money. The cost was only $25 a night in March 2022 and that is hard to beat. If this were $40 a night I would de-rate it to 4 stars.

All of the photos are from site 38 except the white caps on the lake, which was taken On our walk near 58.