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.

Cumberland Mountain State Park

Cumberland Mountain State Park is located between Knoxville & Nashville, Tennessee, near Crossville.  The Cumberland Mountain State Park Friends Group webpage reports that this park is one of 14 original state parks.

The park is very well maintained; we arrived in a thunderstorm that made some branches fall onto the road. The next morning they were all picked up.

The sites have electricity, water, and full hook-ups. We were able to turn on the hot-spot for internet (to watch Netflix at night before we went to sleep), and had decent cell service. Each site is equipped with a fire ring, grill, picnic table, and lantern pole. There is also a garbage can at each site. The sites we saw were concrete with gravel attached to it, and all of the sites looked fairly level.

 Some of the bathrooms have recently been renovated. The one closest to us had not been, but it was still decent. The shower was hot and had really good pressure.

One thing I really liked about the shower was the number of hooks. There were 2 attached to the door, and then 2 more next to the actual shower.

The only thing we found lacking at the campground was a place to wash dishes, which is important to us since we don't have water in our camper. Well, the washing isn't really important, the getting rid of the gray water is, though.
Within the park, there is a nice swimming pool with a snack bar attached to it.

There is a "campstore", but be aware that it is almost empty, except for some t-shirts. It could be that they are waiting on more supplies, but it was almost empty.

On the other side of the campstore,there is a red-tailed hawk and barred owl in captivity.

                                                            

If you're looking for some hiking to do, there are plenty of trails available, as well as a swinging bridge. I have heard that the restaurant is very good, although we didn't have a chance to check it out. The restaurant is on Byrd Lake, which is also the site of a dam built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The dam, completed in 1938, is the largest masonry structure built by the CCC and is also considered the largest non-reinforced dam in the world. There is a nearby quarry that supplied the sandstone to make the concrete. The plants that were on the floor of the lake were dug up and transplanted for use in landscaping the park. 

If you don't want to camp, there are 3 different cabins available: Standard, Timber Lodge, and Luxurious.

Overall, we were very impressed with the park. We're putting this one on the list of places to return!

Frisco Woods Campground, NC

When we decided to go to the Outer Banks, Robert initially said he wanted to camp at a National Park Campground. There is no electricity or water at the campsites, and we went in July. So, I was able to convince him that we needed air conditioning. We began online searches to find the right spot, and we're certain we found it.

When we first got there, we registered and went in search of our site. We had a spot reserved right on the Sound. Our little trailer fit, but there was no place to put our canopy, plus the jockey wheel wouldn't come down due to a hole. We rode back to the office and explained our predicament. The Office Staff couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating. (*Note: it is their policy to not give refunds if  you change to a less expensive site.) Within 10 minutes, we were given several sites to take a look at. We ended up with a large site backing up to the marsh.

(View from our site)

Most of the sites are a good size, with plenty of room for even the bigger rigs to put out a canopy.

Did you notice the trees? This is the only campground we saw (beside some of the sites in the Frisco National Park Campground) that has this many trees. Definitely a plus when you're camping in July!
Frisco Woods has sites for every camping need. Sites with full hook-ups, sites with electricity & water but not hook-ups (like ours),  tent sites without water or electricity:

They also have cabins with electricity and air conditioning, but no water:

Included on-site is a canal and a pool (the pool can be seen in the left side of the following pictures).

The pool. The bath house at the pool has been renovated. I didn't take any pictures, but it is pretty nice...and air conditioned!

The other bath houses have decking as the floor. Not nearly as nice, but it gets the job done! They were clean and conveniently located throughout the campground.

There is a dishwashing station (very important to us!) at the bath house.

Pets are welcome. There are "doggie stations" conveniently located through out the grounds. Most of the campers were very conscientious about picking up after their dog.
Frisco Woods is a very family friendly campground. There is a very small playground. (I didn't get a picture because when we went by there were children playing on the swings.) There is also a pavilion of sorts right next to the playground.

There is an amazing camp store. It has almost anything you could possibly need from souvenirs to wine & beer to bug spray to sunscreen to snacks to ice and grocery essentials.

If they don't have it, there's a market just down the street.

Other amenities include laundry facilities (coin-operated), gas refill, kayak rentals, and free air refill (which is great for refilling your tires after you get off of the beach). There is also wi-fi, but it was really slow. We were able to get 4G on our cell phones, so our hotspot was on a lot.
Every night, some of the campers went to "the point" to see beautiful sunsets.

Of course, some campers didn't have to go anywhere to see the sunset!

 We were extremely happy with this campground. In summary: good-sized sites with options (electricity, water, hook-ups...all as needed), pet-friendly, family-friendly, nice clean bath houses, amazing camp store, trees, and a place to watch beautiful sunsets. All this, and it's conveniently located to Ramp 49 which gives you beach access!

If you plan on camping there, the only recommendation we would have is to make sure you take bug spray and tiki torches. We took citronella candles & citronella stakes but couldn't use them...it was too windy.
To view their website, click here.