Warren Mary Ellen
Ranger
Hard to believe the temperature here in South Carolina this week. We camped at Lee State Park which is in Midlands and heading pretty close to the Lowcountry of SC near the coast. Usually the summer here is brutally hot and humid, but we highs in the low 80s and morning lows in the 50s. Never worn a jacket in South Carolina on Father's Day weekend, but had a lightweight jacket on each morning for a while. This park has an ongoing special for camping at 50% off of the normal rate to attract people there. One of the other nearby state parks is doing the same thing. Turned out to be a nice park to camp at and the ranger and the campground hosts were some of the best we have seen anywhere.
Our purpose for going to this part of the Palmetto State was to see as many state parks in the region as possible and Lee State Park is in the middle of a large we had not been to at all. The SC State Park system has a competition to encourage people to visit all 47 parks. This week we did 10 in the area and all but 2 had campgrounds (I'll review each campground in that section this week). The two without campgrounds are Woods Bay State Park and Goodale State Park. Woods Bay is a preserved Carolina Bay which is unique landform mostly found in the Carolinas and most have been torn up for farming or other development. To difficult to explain what these bays except to say they are inland and they get their name from the Bay trees that grow in them. You'll have to Google it but from an aerial view they are interesting. This is a swamp with boardwalk that takes you into the middle of it. A beautiful place. Goodale State Park is mostly a large lake near Camden, SC that has Bald Cypress trees in the water. There is a canoe trail through the trees but we had to dogs with us so we could not rent kayaks this time.
First 2 nights were really quiet with only about 6 other sights being used and none near us. Friday night most of sights were being used. Other than visiting the other parks, we did manage some good hammock time at our site. We stopped by the Darlington Speedway and hope to return for the NASCAR race Labor Day weekend. For a small state, SC has several different BBQ regions so we had some since it is different than what I find at home. The main difference here is they also serve hash. This is usually served over rice and it is a little like a stew and the flavor is pretty mild. When people ask what is it or how do you make it, the answer is often you don't want to know. I usually describe it as a liquid sausage since it is chopped organ meats mostly. My wife is from New York and likes it. People either like it or hate it, there is no middle ground.
We have 12 more parks to go. Most of them are on the coast near Charleston and Myrtle Beach that we still need to get to. So this will require at least one more trip to the Lowcountry and possibly two. The weather is about to go back to a more normal Hades setting until the middle of Sept or so.
Our purpose for going to this part of the Palmetto State was to see as many state parks in the region as possible and Lee State Park is in the middle of a large we had not been to at all. The SC State Park system has a competition to encourage people to visit all 47 parks. This week we did 10 in the area and all but 2 had campgrounds (I'll review each campground in that section this week). The two without campgrounds are Woods Bay State Park and Goodale State Park. Woods Bay is a preserved Carolina Bay which is unique landform mostly found in the Carolinas and most have been torn up for farming or other development. To difficult to explain what these bays except to say they are inland and they get their name from the Bay trees that grow in them. You'll have to Google it but from an aerial view they are interesting. This is a swamp with boardwalk that takes you into the middle of it. A beautiful place. Goodale State Park is mostly a large lake near Camden, SC that has Bald Cypress trees in the water. There is a canoe trail through the trees but we had to dogs with us so we could not rent kayaks this time.
First 2 nights were really quiet with only about 6 other sights being used and none near us. Friday night most of sights were being used. Other than visiting the other parks, we did manage some good hammock time at our site. We stopped by the Darlington Speedway and hope to return for the NASCAR race Labor Day weekend. For a small state, SC has several different BBQ regions so we had some since it is different than what I find at home. The main difference here is they also serve hash. This is usually served over rice and it is a little like a stew and the flavor is pretty mild. When people ask what is it or how do you make it, the answer is often you don't want to know. I usually describe it as a liquid sausage since it is chopped organ meats mostly. My wife is from New York and likes it. People either like it or hate it, there is no middle ground.
We have 12 more parks to go. Most of them are on the coast near Charleston and Myrtle Beach that we still need to get to. So this will require at least one more trip to the Lowcountry and possibly two. The weather is about to go back to a more normal Hades setting until the middle of Sept or so.
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