Edisto Beach State Park, SC

If you're looking for a place on the coast to get away from the usual touristy places, then we've got a place for you. We went to Edisto Beach State Park (SC) for a week in March. The State Park has 2 campgrounds: Beach and Live Oak. We didn't look around the Live Oak Campground, except to register.

We were a bit concerned that our reserved site wouldn't be big enough, but we ended up with plenty of room.

 We could have had more room, but we had a boyscout troop just behind us who spread out a bit. It was fine with us; we still had plenty of room.

 We had a pull-through site. Originally, we thought it might be better for a bigger camper, but these pull-throughs are perfect for the little ones.

All of the sites have electric & water as well as fire pits and picnic tables, and we had 4G service. We were told that we would be able to get decent wifi since we were close to the bath house, but that wasn't so. With the 4G, we were able to turn on the hotspot when needed. 

The sites were a good size. As I said before, we had plenty of room. As you can see in the pictures above, we didn't even use about half of our site.

We were close to the beach; we were able to fall asleep to the lull of the waves without being right on the beach. 

(Trail to the beach from the campground)

The bathhouses were very clean. 1 was newer than the other, but it didn't have these handy shelves in the shower:

There was plenty of warm water; the only thing about the shower I didn't care for was that you couldn't move the showerhead. But, like I said, there was warm water and it had decent pressure.

 The other bathroom (near the bigger campers) had a nicer, newer floor.

The showers had a bench as well as a couple of hooks. Just a couple more hooks would have been perfect!

 The bathhouse.

An outdoor shower was provided, which is a little strange because a park ranger stopped and questioned our utility tent that I put the luggable loo in. He thought we had some water going into the tent, but once he realized we didn't have water going to it, he was okay with it.

There are sites that run just on the side of the dune:

Sites that are in the middle of the loop:

Marsh-side sites:

And sites for bigger rigs:

We enjoyed walks on the beach multiple times of the day since our site was so close to the access. The beach was relatively quiet during the day, and the campground was quiet at night. Everyone we encountered was nice & polite (even the ranger who questioned our utility tent was polite). The only problem we had was with the gnats, or flying teeth as a local told us. So, make sure you pack a hat, because they show no mercy, even your head is vulnerable!

Dogs are allowed on the beach but must be on a leash if you're on Park Property. Once you get on the town's beach, they can go off-leash from May - Oct., as long as you have them under voice command. Make sure you have doggie bags with you. We didn't see any stations to grab some, so we made sure we had a few tied onto the leash.

The same was true for the campground. When we stayed at James Island, there were plenty of dog stations; we always made sure we grabbed a bag. There are no such stations on the beach side of Edisto State Park, so make sure you stock up before you visit.

We all had a good, restful time at Edisto. It was a perfect getaway for all of us, Laika included. We would definitely come back again.

James Island County Park, SC

(To see larger pictures, just click on them!)

We recently took a week-long camping trip to James Island, SC. James Island is located just outside of Charleston.  If you're planning on visiting the Charleston area, then this is definitely the place to camp. Downtown Charleston is only 15-20 minutes away (depending on traffic), and you're close to Folly Beach, Isle of Palms, and Kiawah. If you're a guest of the campground, the entrance fee to the Folly Beach County Park and Kiawah Beachwalker County Park is waived. After 1 October during the week, both parks (along with Isle of Palms County Park) do not have an entrance fee.

(The star on the bottom left corner is the campground)

James Island Campground is located within a county park. Charleston County has several very nice parks, but this is the only one with a campground. This particular park has so many amenities that you could stay here for a week and have enough to do without leaving the park.

There are miles of trails, so if you have a bicycle, plan on bringing it. If you don't have a bike, there are some available to rent for $10 the first day, $5 after that. There is also an extremely nice dog park on site, with places for your dog to get into the water. We didn't see any alligators, but had been told that there were a couple who were relocated due to getting too close to humans and dogs.

(View of the dog park from the road)

As you might have guessed, the park is extremely dog-friendly. There are containers for "doggy bags" all through out the park. You still need to watch where you step in the dog park: I saw one woman walking toward the water while her dog pooped. She never even noticed.

Also in the park are a water park, climbing wall, 18-hole disc golf course, kayak & pedal boat rentals, and a fishing dock. The water park was closed for the season. I'm assuming that, even though you are a guest at the campground, you would still be required to pay the $11.99 entrance fee (non-residents of Charleston County).

 (Boardwalk to fishing dock)

 (View from fishing dock)

While we were there, the lights were being put up for The Festival of Lights. I was kind of hoping that they would have to test them while we were there; I would have liked to have seen what the park looked like with all of the lights on. 

The campsites were well-space out, and included , water, electric, full hook-ups, and a fire ring. 

The bathhouse, laundry area, and activity center are all together:

The bathhouses were as close to immaculate as you can get. The shower curtains are bleached at least once a week, and one day when I was in the bathhouse, several workers came in to double check that everything was the way it should be.

Even the laundry area was nice:  there are rocking chairs in front of the machines so you can rock the cycles away, or there is a swing directly across from them.

The activity center includes a tv, kitchen area (great for washing dishes when you don't have a sink in your camper!), ping pong table, foosball, fireplace, book swap, outside eating areas, as well as a swing overlooking a pond.

There is a sign around the pond area next to the activity center, just in case you forget where you are:

Wildlife is abundant, so it is important to make sure your food is packed safely away from the animals. One night, a raccoon walked within a few feet of me as he walked through our campsite. I had a non-food tote open, so I'm assuming he was planning on looking to see what he could find. I hit my book, so he scurried away. Our last night there, 2 raccoons walked on the edge of our neighbor's site, and then 2 more climbed down from a tree right behind our neighbor's back. We didn't see any gators, but the squirrels will come within a couple of feet if you sit very still. We also saw several toads & frogs. This little guy was on our camper window one night:

Cell service was decent; every now and then we would get a 4G signal. We had a WiFi router on our site and the signal was good, it was just extremely slow. If you're planning on working while you're visiting and need internet, it would be a good idea to have a booster.

Our overall impression of this campground was very positive. We would rate this as a very sound "A".