Guide to Getting Away from the Sunnyside Traveler

Since the South Carolina State Parks have reopened on May 1, the parks have a limited number of visitors they can have there at one time. So far, each weekend, about 10 or more parks reach their capacity by noon. I've been keeping an eye on the parks to see which ones are the most popular and fill up the fastest. I thought I would share with you some of the fun but lesser known parks. Just be sure to check the state park facebook page to see the latest announcements. First, though, I should tell you the parks that are busiest and have the most restrictions. Edisto Beach State Park is only open to campers and those staying overnight (until May 11). No day visitors. Jones Gap State Park has a lot of restrictions on visitors. On the weekends, you have to purchase a parking pass before arriving. Other popular parks that are filling up on the weekends before noon: Paris Mountain, Caesars Head, Keowee-Toxaway, Table Rock, Kings Mountain, Landsford Canal, and Musgrove Mill. Basicall...

2020 Hiking #1 Happy New Year! We started off the new year with a new hike. It was a nice day here in South Carolina, clear and cool, so we decided to try a new section of the Palmetto Trail. I have wanted to hike the Wateree Passage since it's close to Columbia and crosses the Wateree River. The Wateree Passage is a little over 11 miles. It connects Highway 601 to Poinsett State Park where the High Hills of Santee Passage begins. We decided to start at the western end of the trail. It starts near Eastover on Highway 601, travels south along the highway for about 2.5 miles, then turns east and joins up with an old railroad bed to cross the Wateree River and the surrounding lowlands. Trailhead at Hwy. 601 The trail is pretty flat the whole way that we hiked. We crossed the Wateree River and hiked to the suspension bridge, which was about 4.25 miles. Our total hike was about 8.5 miles round trip. The section along 601 followed the highway but was in the trees. Some pa...

2019 Hiking Week 38 Croft State Park is over 7,000 acres outside of Spartanburg. It is a huge state park with trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. There are also two lakes and many campsites, including a stable for horses. Entry is $2.00 per person. Bridge across the creek. We recently visited Croft State Park to hike a section of the Palmetto Trail. The trail covers over 12 miles, mostly in the park with a small section just north of the park entrance. We hiked the small section at the south of the park which crosses the Fairforest Creek and joins up with some of the mountain bike trails for about a mile. We added an extra loop around and enjoyed the fall leaves. While visiting, we found out that this area was originally settled by some farming families, then was converted into a training ground for the army in the early 1900's. It was opened as a state park in 1949. While we were hiking along the creek, we noticed some stacked stones and oth...

2019 Hiking Week 37 Table Rock Mountain Table Rock State Park is probably one of the most distinctive state parks in South Carolina. It is named after the iconic Table Rock mountain that is located in the park. The park is popular for hiking, camping, water activities, and gathering together with friends and family. The park is 30 miles from Greenville, 30 miles from Clemson, and the closest town, Pickens, is about 12 miles away. It costs $5.00 per adult for entrance. Easter 2018 I’ve visited Table Rock many times over the years. Our family has celebrated Easter and Thanksgiving at some of their shelters. It’s a pretty large park with lots of room. This past weekend, I attended the Women’s Outdoor Weekend, hosted by Palmetto Conservation Foundation. There were around 30 ladies attending, and we had class offerings on backpacking, kayaking, hiking, camping, and wilderness survival. I signed up for one day and attended the wilderness survival classes. We went through a fir...

2019 Hiking Week 23 Brookwood Park Trail Section Hi all! Sorry I'm a bit behind on my posting. We haven't been doing many adventures since the weather is hot and buggy. This past weekend, to escape the heat, we traveled to the upstate and visited a small section of the Palmetto Trail that goes through Landrum. Downtown Landrum Landrum is a small town off of I-26 near the North Carolina state line. It's not far from Tryon, North Carolina, and the area is known for the horse farms. Two sections of the Palmetto Trail meet in Landrum. One is the Blue Wall Passage , which goes around Lake Lanier and other natural areas. The other is the Peach Country Passage , which follows back-roads from Inman to Landrum. From what I can tell, both of these passages have large sections that are on roads and highways. They mention that they are best for cycling along. But at the place where the two passages meet, Brookwood Park in Landrum, has a nice trail loop. From that park, i...

2019 Hiking Week 17 Back in March I featured the Timmerman Trail and Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve . Connecting to the Timmerman Trail, and near Congaree Creek, is the Three Rivers Greenway. It's also called the Riverwalk here in Columbia. There are a few sections to this trail that will (hopefully) all connect together in the future. They follow the Saluda, Broad, and Congaree Rivers and I am so glad our community has set these places aside for trails. Year-round you can see visitors and people from the area out walking, biking, running, and picnicking along the trails. For Easter Sunday, we actually had a picnic at the Columbia Canal Riverwalk (which is part of the Palmetto Trail). The Three Rivers Greenway is made up of sections at the Columbia Canal, Cayce Riverwalk, Timmerman Trail, and the soon-to-open Saluda Riverwalk. There is also a spur of the trail that is in the Granby Mill Village area. The website says there are at least 12.5 miles of trails but I think it...

Keowee-Toxaway State Park Plus Palmetto Trail, Eastatoe Passage 2019 Hiking week 16 This past Easter weekend, I was able to visit Keowee-Toxaway State Park . It is on Lake Keowee near the Eastatoe Creek. Last year, I was able to visit this park with my mom and we kayaked part of the lake and up the river. The lake kayaking was difficult but the river section was nice.  This year, we stayed with my family at the cabin that is in the park. There’s only one cabin in this state park and it is on the lake. It’s a nice, two story cabin with 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a double porch, and its own boat dock. The cabin was renovated in the past few years and I was impressed by it. I definitely would like to go back, especially for a weekend with some kayaks. Also, the park is free. It's nice to have free access to the lake. Cabin This past weekend, the weather was not cooperating for much outdoor activity. Friday we had some strong storms and Saturday was co...

2019 Hiking week 8 This past Saturday was another dreary, wet day. It was not the kind of day you want to spend lots of time outside. But since the weather forecasters weren't calling for rain, just clouds and mist, we decided to get outside and get our hike in. Sunday would have been ideal since it was beautiful Sunday afternoon but other plans were filling the day up. Saturday we decided to try the Fort Jackson Passage of the Palmetto Trail. We wanted to do the first section through the fort. It is about 5 miles and we were planning to drop one car off at the end and start at the other side. Unfortunately, after we tried a couple of the gates at the fort, we were told that civilians weren't allowed on the base without a "sponsor". We were pretty frustrated by this. I'm not up to date with what's going on with military bases but we had no idea that they had closed the base to all civilians. We finally went back to where our other car was and decided to do...

2019 Hiking week 5 Waterfall on the trail. This past weekend we had a long, fun, group hike in the mountains. We were visiting my parents outside of Greenville and we went for a hike. My parents have hiked all the waterfall trails and state parks in the upstate and parts of North Carolina. I’ve done many hikes with them over the years so we decided to do another this weekend. This time, my sister joined us with her dog. The trail is called Jones Gap Trail and is from Caesar’s Head State Park  to Jones Gap State Par k. It is mostly downhill, about 5 1/2 miles, with some waterfalls along the way. You follow the Middle Saluda passage of the Palmetto Trail . The section we started with was actually not part of the Palmetto Trail, but we joined up with it later. The park ranger at Caesar’s Head said that they’re planning some adjustments to the trails in the park, which will also change the route of the Palmetto Trail. I’m not sure their time-frame on this but hopefully it...

2019 SC Hiking Week 4 Poinsett State Park CCC Spillway and historic mill ruins. To celebrate a weekend where we had no rain, we traveled to Poinsett State Park , outside of Sumter. Only about an hour’s drive from Columbia. I was looking forward to visiting this park since I had seen some of the pictures on the website and it looked pretty. They also call this area “the mountains of the midlands” which I wanted to see if it lived up to that. I have to say that it was a really nice park. Bonus was that there was also a section of the Palmetto Trail that joined other trails in this park. And they have no entrance fees!  Driving out to the park, it was neat to see all the older large homes on Hwy 261. I find it fascinating that 150+ years ago, this area was a place where influential South Carolina families built large plantations and homes. Last year we were able to visit Kensington Mansion with Historic Columbia where we learned a lot about the history of the area....