Jay B.

Charleston , SC

Joined August 2017

Labor Day 2021

Be advised that this park is on Mayport Naval Station, so you will need proper military ID to access the base.

We are tent campers, and stayed in the tent area Fri-Mon over Labor Day.

The tent area is just that, and area. No designated spots, no fire rings, and no picnic tables. There was one table in the middle of the area and one water spigot for all to use. The area is shaded nicely and there is usually a breeze blowing in. When the breeze stopped, it was quite warm, even at night.

The park is mainly long term rv’ers with huge campers. The rv spots have little to no shade.

The staff was friendly, and called us while we were driving down, to get our ETA.

The grounds were well kept, even though Saturday and Sunday mornings, they were mowing at 8am.

The only dumpster we saw was about 1/4 mile from the tent sites. There is a big dog park across the street from the the rv park, and a nice beach about 1/2 mile away.

There is a PX about 1/2 mile away, the main exchange and commissary are off base a few miles from the main gate.

The bathrooms were clean, and had plenty of hot water. The park also has a laundry room next to the bathrooms.

Overall a very nice park, and we will definitely go back. We will be more prepared next time, knowing there are no fire pits or picnic tables in the tent area. Can’t beat the price of $10/night for that view.

Lakeshore #94 Apr 2021

We stayed in the Lakeshore side, and after viewing the Cypress View campground, we made the right choice.

Cypress view is nice, and closer to the camp store, but is geared more toward RV campers, and we are tent campers.

The drive in is mostly paved. The road in is bumpy in spots, but easy to navigate in any vehicle.

The sites are spacious and not right on top of each other. Our site had a good view of the lake. We have Verizon, and had no issues with service here.

The town of Santee is close by, about 10-15 mins away. We did go into town to purchase firewood at the Santee General Store. A bundle was about $6, stored under cover, and dry.

Some of the neighbors were loud at the campground, but we consider this more of an inconvenience of rude people and not the parks fault. When camping at state parks, the noise levels are hit and miss depending on the people camping.

We would have given this park 5 ⭐️ if it weren’t for the bathrooms. They did have plenty of hot water, and were kept clean, they were just dated. Old facilities, no mirrors, etc. but clean.

There is a boat ramp close by and trails to explore, although we did neither. We just relaxed, enjoyed the weather, and decided we would definitely come back since it is only a little over an hour from our home.

Site 37

We stayed here April 2-4. We mainly stayed here because it’s only an hour and a half from Charleston, and read some good reviews.

If you are coming from the south, be advised that once you are off I-95, you will see zero stores or gas stations, so plan accordingly.

The road going into the campground is pretty bad, but doable. We tent camp, but saw quite a few bigger rigs camped there. I did hear some of the other campers with trailers saying they had trouble backing into their sites do to the trees.

If you’re getting there after dark, I imagine that it would be difficult to find your site.

Site 37 was super small, but we did manage to get our tent set up as well as our screen for the picnic table. The water spigot was in a weird spot and got in the way.

There are many spots that are bigger and in better spots, so choose wisely. There was no privacy at 37 and it was way to close to the site next to us.

There seems to be many trails for hiking and/or mountain biking and we did see people with kayaks.

There are two bathrooms that were fairly clean, although one was closed Saturday afternoon for a plumbing issue.

We were surprised at the amount of people camping, because the first night we were there, it got down to 27 degrees.

If you are not bringing wood with you, the office will deliver to your site if you call between 4 and 5 pm.

Overall, a decent place, and we will go back, just into a different site.

March 19-21 2021

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.

Site 23 Labor Day weekend

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.

July 2-5 Tent #2

When we got to our site late at night, we discovered there was someone parked in our spot. There is supposed to be one car per spot. The signs designating the spots are off the road and very hard to see. Site 4 was right next to us, and site 3 behind us. We have never seen so many tent campers using generators and projecting movies onto big screens and sheets ever lol. If you arrive after dark, the sites are very hard to find. To not be totally negative, the bathroom was nice, and clean, and a little walk from our site. We love the upstate, so we went to see the nearby twin falls. Well worth the trip, an easy drive and hike in to this spectacular waterfall.

June 2020

We loved this park. We stayed in the tent area, aptly named deer run. There were plenty of deer there and they are not skittish at all.

The tent sites were spacious, spread out, and shaded.

The bathrooms were clean, and individual, bathroom and shower all in one.

The park was clean overall and does rent SUPs, canoes, and kayaks. The area of the fort is very nice and full of information markers.

There is a store in which you can purchase ice, and a place to purchase firewood right inside the park. Both big pluses in our book.

We will definitely visit again.

June 2020

Nice park with a lot to do close by. We tent camped here the first weekend in June.

Bathrooms were always clean and seem to have been recently redone. Sites were small but not overly so.

Being regular tent campers, we understand that sometimes you are at the mercy of your neighbors. The people staying across from us decided that 1030 was the time to start blaring music and screaming. No camp host showed up, but after they fought and someone threatened to crush someone’s tent, they decided to calm down.

There are tons of hiking opportunities in the area with tons of waterfalls. We did get to hike to a few, but wish we had more time to spend there. We live 4 hours away, and if it were closer, we would be regular visitors. We will definitely go back at some time.

The park staff came around twice a day to pick up trash, very nice. There were warning signs for bears, but we saw no trace of them. Posted in my pictures is one of two baggies we found at our site. Being a former corrections officers, I know what I think it is, but I’ll leave that to the reader.

This place is still getting 4 stars due to overall cleanliness and location.

Memorial Day 2020

Word to the wise, when the website says the park closes at “posted times”, they mean 9pm. We know this because we got there at 9:05 and the gate was locked tight. We thought we’d walk in, and if it wasn’t too far, I’d pack the tent in, and we’d get the rest of our stuff in the morning. After walking a while and not seeing the camping area, we called it a night and slept in the back of our Jeep with our dog. The maintenance man was surprised to see me roll out of there when he arrived in the morning to open the gate. He was very apologetic and gave us the code in case we needed out in the middle of the night.

This is a no frills campground, and we knew that going in. We’re ok with that. There is one vault toilet and one water source. The people in the group site however, utilized the one water spigot as a bath house, yep, full on bathing, dish washing, you get the picture, even after being told by the staff not to.

The maintenance staff kept the area clean, and were around frequently, as well as rangers.

There is no park store or anything, so bring what you need. After many stops, we found the one place in town that sold firewood, it’s the speedway gas station.

No frills, not much to do, but relax and listen to nature. We’re ok with that, just not worth the 3 hour drive for us again.

3 day escape

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.

Labor Day 2017

2 night stay in a tent site. Sites were small, but doable. Very clean and spacious showerhouses/bathrooms in each section. Some sections do not allow pets, even for walking. Lake was large with 26 miles of shoreline. The lake was virtually empty, especially for a holiday weekend. There is a swimming area, also empty. The only boats we saw were pontoons and kayaks. Check their website, maybe that is all that are allowed. We don't have a boat, so didn't ask. Some hiking trails around the park. Surprisingly, we saw NO wildlife, and had no campsite "visitors". The park offered many family friendly programs.

Memorial Day

Long holiday weekend trip. Love this park. Designated pet areas, flush toilets and shower house available. Plenty of trails.

Weekend get away

Weekend get away with the wife and dog. Pet friendly park. Walking path to the lake which was very close. Would advise to visually check the sites, due to terrain which is rolling.