Best Equestrian Camping near Ninety Six, SC

It was difficult for me to find Woods Ferry, but after talking with a park official, I finally got there. It is off the beaten path, so it is quiet. Apparently, there had been a lot of rain recently, and the area showed it. Woods Ferry is a campground mainly for campers who have horses. There are corrals at many of the campsites, so there are also a lot of horseflies. Horseflies and the actual site itself are my two main concerns. Selecting my campsite was my mistake. It was sloped, but there are a few others that were not sloped. There is running water and a pit toilet. Otherwise, you will have to take everything else in that you need. 

Since South Carolina is hot during this time of year, I was a bit uncomfortable, especially since I was on a slope.

There is a separate section for group camping. However, I think it caters to groups of horse campers, as there are corrals at the campsites. 

Overall, it’s not too bad for those who camp in an RV or a travel trailer, but it’s not ideal for tent campers.

Bussey Point is primarily for equestrians. The campsites have pre-installed horse hitches and plenty of room to move a horse trailer. The sites have a picnic table and a fire pit. The campground has a well for water and an open pit latrine. There's no power which is perfect for camping off grid away from all the trailers.

The campsites are right on the water and the view is beautiful. Over the weekend I was the only one here and the only person I spoke to was the volunteer Camp Ranger from the US Army Corps of Engineers.

There is a 12-mile horse trail that goes out on the peninsula and some pack-in or canoe-in campsites out on the peninsula.

Fee per night is on an honor system at $10. I have no complaints about this campsite only about the other campers that leave their trash behind.

I recommend this campground if you're looking to get away from all the people especially the crowds at the more popular campsites at the state parks, and if you're fine with more primitive camping that doesn't involve daily showers.

This is a remote campground in the national forest, and it is close to equestrian camping as well. With that said, there will be horseflies. However, it is a quiet campground. A big disadvantage, as far as I am concerned, is that it does not have water access. With that said, plan to dry camp and bring your own water. There is a pit toilet, so that is one good thing I can say about this campground. 

Avoid campsite 4 if you are in a tent, unless you have a rake. There are a lot of sweetgum balls. Since I was there at the beginning of the week, there were only two or three other campers and they were in RVs. 

Overall, it’s not bad for camping if you are prepared and know that you will need to take everything in, including water.

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.

Great little spot for what we wanted to do. Quick last minute camping trip we didn’t want to drive hours away from home. This was fairly close and one of the few places to all booked up for the weekend. As a lady i can appreciate the glorified outhouses so I didn’t have to squat in the woods. My boyfriend and hiked the trail next to the camp. It’s mainly a bourse trail but we knew that going into it. Which means you need to expect to get muddy as the bourses make excellent mud puddles. We didn’t complete the whole 9.8 miles. Went about 3 and turned around. The campground was very quiet for us all weekend. A few random people rolling by from time to time who were staying or checking the place out. If you want secluded this isn’t for you. We got lucky. It was empty our first night and a few other car campers joined us spread out through the camp the next night.