Best Tent Camping near Barnwell, SC

This campground is 20 miles from town. it is a long way out. The site is a loop for 35 foot or less and it has tent sites! it has one bathhouse with 2 showers and two toilets. it is not enough when it is full. It does not have sewer but a dump site. No phone or internet use. It was very quiet and it offered walking trails, small beach area on lake.

This is a typical state park, not exciting, but mostly quiet.

The road going into the campground is horrible if you are towing a camper and full of potholes but is manageable. We are tent campers, so this didn’t affect us.

We tent camped in site #1, and the park was full this weekend. There are only 25 spots here, so it fills regularly. Our site was mostly level.

We did have a group of about 10,000 scouts camp right behind us in the group site. This never bothers us, it’s always good to see kids out in nature. They were mostly quiet for such a large group.

The bathroom / shower house is centrally located in the middle of the loop that the campground is arranged into. It was clean and had plenty of hot water.

They do lock the gate at night, so if you are arriving late, call for the code to the lock on the gate. We made it before the gate closed, but the ranger did call us while on the road (we live about 2 hrs away) to see if we needed the code.

Nothing much to do here as far as we saw, but that’s why we camped here this time. Just sat and read while enjoying the weather.

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.

I’ll put my gripe first and get it out of the way. Site 16 was awful to get into. Two trees are only about 10 feet apart and once you clear those you have to jackknife and nearly scrape your tow vehicle on a tree just to get close enough to the utility pedestals and to have some space on the door/awning side. The site slopes by the utilities and I had to get onto 4 leveling blocks and was still slightly off kilter. Ok. Gripe over. The rangers and crew were friendly and amazing! The park (during the week, late May) was pretty sparse with only 7-8 of the 25 sites occupied. Come Friday it fills up (and group near me noisy).. the park is beautiful, but small. Has a really nice fishing pier and beautiful hike around the lake. The two towns on either side (Blackville and Barnwell) are just enough for supplies. Overall a great and affordable place to visit!

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.

First of all: this place is mainly an RV campground and I am a tent camper.

But I was desperate, so I showed up here without any prior contact or reservation.

They allowed me to pitch my tent close to the lake, far away from the RVs. They do have a bathroom with a shower and it’s not in the best condition, but when you haven’t showered in a week, it’s just fine.

This place wasn’t ideal, but it was great in a pinch for one night.

We stayed over on our way to Charleston, SC. We booked it online. We had no hookeups, but water and a dump station is available. There are hiking trails, canoeing, and fishing. The ranger was super friendly and they are pet friendly. We had to switch sites when we arrived due to a space issue. We have a 32’ RV and the site stated a max of 35’ but there was a tent pad that would have interfered with us being level. We were allowed to switch with no issues.

Really clean camp sites, they offer primitive camping without any amenities theses camp sites are more secluded and peaceful in my opinion its also near a large fishing pond and creek all the primitive sites do all have a small fire pit, and there are two outhouses( bring your own toilet paper). They also offer more luxury camping in the main park with running water and showers and outlets this is also where the RVs are parked, but you can also put up tents. In the main park there is a few fishing ponds with the ability to rent Kayaks, a spring fed pond with a swimming area, hiking trails, playground and also bathrooms and picnic tables. There is alot to do my family had a blast.

We stayed in the Cabin which was great with a baby! AC kept us cool in the heat of the summer but we were still close to our friends in tents and campers... nice tree coverage and close (quick drive) to the Edisto river/beach. Where you can raft or hang out at the beach.

Right by the cabin is a walk down to the river for fishing. Don’t recommend swimming here! undertow could be dangerous... there’s a path to the water on the other side of the camp where we set up to fish also but lost a lot of lures in the brush. Kids had a blast anyway!

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.

I was a guest of someone who was living in a 5th wheel and we were made to feel very unwanted and we ended up leaving a couple of days after arriving.

Stayed her for our sons basic training graduation. Perfect location. Far enough away from base but close enough to everything. Clean park and great staff.

This Campground is well maintained with level pull through sites. No frills like a pool but it's easy access. Congaree National Park Fort Jackson are nearby. Columbia is a neighboring city. They have a large flea market next door.

I have stayed that this park 3 or 4 times.  I have always been made to feel at home.  It is a park that is located within the city and not out in the country so you must understand its location but for us it is a nice friendly place to stop, rest and have a relaxing time.  I would recommend it if you are coming through Columbia and need a place to stop and just rest.  Not many amenities but makes up for it in its peacefulness.

We are more of a state park kind of campers and these spots were very close together. Great for passing through but you won't see me there again. Internet was spotty at best.

Great trip overall, camp sites were nice and tidy, restroom and shower facility's we're well stocked and clean, camp host had firewood. Trails were nice, some of the boards on the boardwalk area were getting soft. No lake view from campsite.

great little park 29 sites, very friendly host amd rangers. lakes are very well stocked only down fall is most sites are sand. be sure to read site info to be sure your rig fits. trails are very well maintained. bathrooms very clean