Best Tent Camping near Barnwell, SC

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.

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.

Magnolia Springs State Park is a nice Georgia State Park. Located just north of Millen, GA, the park offers ample camping for both RVs and tents.

Spots are flat and easy to park campers and set up tents with enough room between each for a bit of privacy and a few walk-in tent sites for increased privacy. Cabin rentals are available as well as a group lodge. There is a bath house in the main campground that is well kept complete with flush toilets and showers, as well as a coin laundry machines.

Kayak, canoe, pedal boat and bike rentals are all available from the visitor center to explore the spring fed lake and mostly flat trails in the park.

This is a lovely park to camp and spend time in, but is a 2-3 hour drive to Atlanta or Savannah if you are interested in exploring GA. The town of Millen has fast food options, as well as ample opportunity to pick up essential goods.

This is an ok campground. Small (25 sites) and quiet. Kudos to the park staff for calling the day before to see if we needed firewood, and give us the gate code in case we were going to be late.

As I said before, it is quiet (except for our neighbors ac kicking on and off all day and night). Site 23 is spacious, and although it backs to the road, there is minimal traffic on it.

The bath house is in the middle of the loop and easily accessible. It is a little outdated, but was always clean. The showers are newer than the rest of the bathroom.

There is a canoe/kayak launch close enough to walk to and we saw many people with kayaks and canoes.

We are tent campers and slept with no rain fly, looking at the stars and listening to coyotes howl at night.

A good park overall and a quiet peaceful weekend.

Overall good experience with this campground. The ranger was super sweet and helpful. We enjoyed the trails, and they were nice and easy to get through and just long enough to feel like you got a bit of hiking in. They offer rentals for John boats, paddle boats, and kayaks for a very reasonable cost. We rented two paddle boats and had a blast (it was exhausting though). There is wifi at the office and meeting building, which came in handy for communication since cell service was spotty at best.

The sites are kind of on the smaller side and close, so if you are bringing a large camper it might be a challenge. There were lots of campers, so it's definitely doable though. We were in a tent so the pad size was perfect for us. The pad is mostly sand over clay, rather than gravel, which was great with the tent. The sites have power and water. Lots of trees, so it's perfect if you have hammocks. They also sell fire wood on site, if you need it.

My only minor complaints were the bathrooms, office hours, and wasps. The bathrooms are clean and fully functional but oddly proportioned so the showers and stalls are really cramped but the sink area is huge. The office is only open a couple hours a day, which was understandable but inconvenient. There were a lot of wasps around the fishing pier and the boats. Didn't have any problems with them in other areas or at the camp site, so that was good at least.

All in all, the trip was very enjoyable and we look forward to going back to Barnwell as well as making our way through the other state parks.

Easy stop over for a night or two. Right off of I95. Next to a major road, so there is car/truck noise during the day. None of the sites are private, so I wouldn’t call this a “destination” campground. Great if you want to fish and kayak the Edisto River!

The bathrooms are very clean and air conditioned. Sites are all very clean with power, water, picnic table, and fire ring. There are nicely spaced out trees, so if you have a hammock, bring it. Didn’t have mosquito issues, but beware there are a lot of ants and they bite!!

Best sites are 6, 8, and 9. We camped in site 10.

We stayed 3 nights in the “walk in” tent area of this state park. The park called the day prior to our reservation to see if we would need firewood, a big plus. “Walk in” is a little deceiving, because, gladly, you can drive to the 3 tent spots and park a vehicle in this area. We stayed in spot 29. The three tent spots all have water at each site. They all have spacious tent pads in a wooded, heavily shaded area. 29 has the tent pad very close to the “road/trail”, but there was very little traffic on it. We arrived at night, and the camp host was friendly and directed us to the site. The park was full, but the sites were spaced well and the park was pretty quiet. The bathrooms were very clean and did have hot water. There were numerous signs posted for alligators and bears. I didn’t put a lot of stock into the bear signs due to the fact that none of the garbage cans or anything were “bear-proof”. We did finally see one gator as we walked by the spring one of the days. I thought that we had seen on their site that no hammocks were allowed, or anything tied to the trees, so we didn’t take our hammocks. This was not the case, as there were many hammocks up when we were there. You can look up the history of this place on their website. We were there May 8-11 and only had one colder evening and weather in the 70’s during the day. We would definitely go back.

We camped here in a small hybrid with 3 kids ages 8, 6, and 3. In the center or the campground there is a small playground. The kids didn’t end on it too much, but it was a nice addition. There is also some permanent (concrete) cornhole setup, but you’ll need your own bean bags. There is also a covered picnic area beside the bathhouse and playground with 3 picnic tables and it’s own fire pit. It wasn’t used while we were there, but if you were camping with a few other families it would be amazing!

Each site has electric and water, no sewer. I’ll get to which ones look like the best ones below. Some of the sites are awkward curving instead of straight back in, but most are pretty easy to get into. The only down side is that most sites have large concrete picnic tables and the fire ring is very close while also near a corner of the raised gravel parking level. This makes it a bit more challenging to set up chairs around the fire.

There is one bathhouse, which includes men and women’s bathroom and showers, a laundry room with a large sink (there is no sign that says you can’t wash dishes in this sink), and an all gender accessible toilet/shower room. This shower has a waist high spicket as well as a normal height one. The lower one worked really well to shower the 3 year old covered in vomit after my less than stellar decision to swing her in the hammock all nap time. 🤷‍♀️ The bathhouse was clean and the water hot. They had added a place to hang clothes while showering. There is not bench to set things down, and that would be my only suggestion. My husband said the shower in the men’s room was plumbed backwards and hot was cold and cold was hot. No issues in the women’s.

The rangers were fantastic and friendly. We participated in a hike with the park manager where she told us about the animals in the park and even let us feel grey fox and beaver pelts. We saw vultures and an armadillo. That finished with hot chocolate and roasting marshmallows! On Saturday we took the beginner archery lesson with another ranger. She was so patient with our 6 year old who gets frustrated very easily. It was so much fun! It was obvious that this particular ranger was great kids. The archery lesson was fun for the adults too. Later in the afternoon we participated in a scavenger hunt. Also done very well, definitely geared towards kids, (as expected) but it was definitely fun for the whole family. All the activities were well done. You can also rent paddle boats, canoes, kayaks, and bikes. All the trailers are family friendly. I think this park is perfect for families with young kids.

See this pictures for the best campsites. In short, 16 is the best site by far. Only one with a lake view. 12&14 would be my pick for two campers camping together.