calhoun falls state park

This park is only 15 from our house but it's our favorite for so many more reasons. It's kept up very well considering the steep budget cuts SC has suffered through. Lake Russell is large, clean and uncrowded (not developed Corp lake). There's a store with about anything you'd need to camp on site with dock fill up for boats, dollar and gas stores are 5 minutes into town. Two dump stations, swimming beach (seasonal) basketball and tennis courts (though definitely not professional grade), short hiking trails, several nice playgrounds, covered party decks and lots of picnic areas here. Wildlife abounds; we see deer often, heard a bobcat once, saw a fox yesterday, and our daughter loves feeding the ducks. Pets allowed on a leash. Staff is very friendly. Bathhouses are heated and clean enough for a campground. The sites are huge, paved, and private, with most being shaded. Golf carts are allowed and though there is a marina and statewide rule of no parking on the grass people still park their boats and trailers off the roads which makes hauling a giant camper through more difficult. I have seen rangers ask folks to move their cars and stop children from operating carts so rules are enforced. I've camped here in a large trailer, a small fifth wheel and a tent. The "old" loop #1 is our favorite. It's less crowded and noisy than the newer one in my opinion but both have perks. The host cleans the sites up really well and is friendly. There's a trail head right beside the last site, 41, in loop 1. You can hear the train in town and boats more on loop 2. Also, my biggest complaint, is only on loop 2 have we had problems with campers from non-waterfront sites wandering through our site to get to the lake. More fault to slack parents but I wish the park would put up signs. You don't just walk through the middle of someone else's site they paid for! Loop 2 has some beautiful views of the lake though, as well as some long secluded back in sites and the washer/dryer bathhouse of the park. Use campsitephotos.com and the reserve america site to plan because they both have photos of every site. My photos are from various trips to this park. We like to travel but its hard to venture far from home when we have everything we love this close to home. We're spending Valentine's Day there in our new pup this year!

We went in December, there were only two other people there and it was so peaceful! (during the summer it is really crowded) Restrooms could have been cleaner but I am sure it was due to being there mid week in winter. Hot showers, heated bathrooms. Soap and hand dryer. (A lot of state parks don't have that!) This is one of my favorite places to go camping. It rained one night we stayed and the sites aren't muddy, they seem to be sandy instead of muddy, which is a big deal if you've ever been camping and it rains with two dogs along on the trip! We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back.

The lake is beautiful for fishing and boating. Best camp sights ever! Secluded park - not near anything. Lovely gift shop. Nice hiking.

Camping site is pretty basic, 2 tap water for 12 campsites, no trash bins (only 0.5 miles walking).They could have added more sources of running water and some trash bins as I believe its in the park interest people will keep the env clean...Other then that, very quite and lovely lake shore.

We have camped here several times over the years. It is a very popular campground! To get a nice water site, plan and book ahead. For this recent trip, we had done just that so we had a nice water view and easy swimming access. However, we have camped on the interior sites on past trips and had a blast too. The sites have concrete pads for set up, and most of the sites are very spacious. The sites are also clean. (Actually, the entire park is nicely maintained.) FYI - one of the bathhouses has a washer and dryer which I have never used but it is handy to know just in case. The store and marina are nice. The store has some camping and fishing supplies, t-shirts and hats, souvenirs, etc. It also has fishing gear, children's life jackets, and games that you can check out. Wow! For activities, there are swimming, boating, nature trails, fishing, playgrounds, and just enjoying the beauty and serenity of nature. I am sure there are some geocaches in the park too. Unfortunately, we had very poor cell service so no gps geocache app for us. (Our provider is AT&T.) Ah well - it was sort of nice to be off the grid for a long weekend of camping and family.

This is a very peace park where you can get back to nature. We woke up to a deer bedded down only 30 foot from our site. Lots of deer in the park. Site are nice and large. There are nicely spread out. We love it and will be coming back!

me and my 2 sons spent a week here in our camper it was great quite and we had a great location we stayed on the lake in a cove great fishing.

we camped here all the time....now we go once a month..it stay almost booked up a year out esp .water sites

Camped here May 19-22..We love it. Lake Russell is a beautiful lake with a lot of undeveloped shoreline! The sites are large and most have plenty of space between them and are secluded. we stayed on site #62 in campground 2.. They have two campground loops, # 2 seems to be a little more improved that # 1, although it was nice also!There was always a breeze blowing in from the lake. Some of the sites have nice sandy beach areas. We walked on the nature trails, they have tennis courts, which we did not use. The marina and the camp store is nice. If you have to go to a convenience store, it is a very short drive into Calhoun Falls. Will definitely camp here again!

My son and I had camped here in 2008 in the primitive tent site area and we had a wonderful stay between swimming in the lake and enjoying the beautiful camp site which was shady, well maintained and very private. Last week, my hubby and I brought our "new to us 1996 pop up camper" to the campground and stayed at site 79. This is the newer of the 2 "loops" and it is just an absolutely beautiful campground for very many reasons.......the sites are large, private and well maintained. We watched the camp host visit each unoccupied site and use a leaf blower to blow leaves and pine needles off the area. The fire pit was cleaned out and I think each site has a lantern holder, picnic table, fire pit and another smaller table. What we really like about this campground is the proximity that most sites have to the water. We are kayakers and appreciate "parking" our kayaks on our site with easy access to the water. The bathrooms were well maintained and what I really appreciated was a laundry area with a large sink for doing dishes. Our only disappointment was that the sink faucet needed to be repaired (loose screw) which made it very difficult to use. We reported this to the camp host and to the ranger station and we are hoping that it will be repaired as we are planning another trip to the park real soon. Having a sink to do dishes is such a wonderful thing for those of us who camp in minimal popups since we've been told that it is bad campground etiquette to wash dishes in the restroom and this provides a great option instead of washing our dishes at our campsite. Another nice amenity is that the park has tennis courts..... they are a bit old and rough and a true tennis person might be disappointed in their condition but for us, it was a fun break from kayaking and we had a blast. Another plus is that all of the staff that we encountered seemed very nice and the camp hosts seem really on top of things.

We stayed at this campground on beautiful Lake Russell. We were in a double site - 67/68, I think. The campsites are large and spaced apart nicely. The bathroom was quite a hike from our site, but we took the bikes with us. The bathrooms are clean and very 'state park' like. I think the best site would be the ones in the mid 50's range. They are close to the restroom and the fishing pier. They have fishing poles to loan you at the camp store. The kids had a blast fishing. We took our boat and it looks pretty easy to pull up on the lake and park the boat on your campsite. But, it rained and rained and rained on us. We didn't even take the boat off the trailer. They did allow us to leave the trailer on the grass at our campsite. (some state parks don't allow this). Our site had 2 large picnic tables, a grilling like table and hook for lantern. We can't wait to go back and find out more about the lake and boating. The store was large and had all the normal camping supplies. This is a secret gem of a campground not too far away. I can't wait to go back.