Saluda Shoals Park — Attraction in Irmo

I took 2 grandsons, 9 & 14 and a friend 16, tubing at Saluda Shoals. It was nice but I wish I had found better tips for tubing online than I did. The park is great, but none of us had experience tubing and it was stressful for me. Writing this review in the hopes it helps someone. I wish I had taken rope or something to link our tubes and I wish I'd had a paddle. My arms were too short to do any effective paddling when needed.

I also should not have taken a small soft sided cooler with 4 drinks!

The biggest issue was that the kids got away from me, about a half mile. I don't know why, I don't know if my trying to catch them, paddling, actually caused me to not move forward, or what. At one point, I thought I'd try getting out the tube and swim toward them. BIG mistake! The tube flipped me as I tried to get out, I went under but still managed to hold onto the tube, my cooler and glasses miraculously stayed on my face! The tube was very heavy and hard to swim/pull. It wasn't long I realized I could touch the bottom, I walked the tube to some rocks and got back in.

By the time I got to the kids who thankfully stopped at the exit point, I was so exhausted, I could not get the tube over to the exit. The 16 yr. Old swam out and pulled me in which was no easy task.

The kids enjoyed it but I won't do it again without rope and a paddle!! I didn't sleep that night thinking about all that could have happened if the 9 yr. Old had gotten away from everyone, couldn't exit at the correct point, tried to get out the tube, etc.

There needs to be a tubing guide for dummies somewhere, I sure needed more tips than I found online. I still don't know why the boys got so far ahead of me....

The park itself is very nice. I would have enjoyed the river float if I had not been stressed about the kids and where they were. Kayakers were out and seemed to enjoy it as well. The park also rents kayaks.

At the exit point, staff come pick you up in a shuttle bus. There's a picnic table there while you wait. It's a 1.7 mile float. It was 5.00 to get into the park and 15.00 for each tube which included a life jacket, thank God for the jacket!! You'll need something waterproof for phone, keys, etc. I had the phone with ranger number, but kids had nothing and being so far ahead of me, if they had gotten into trouble, they could not have called for help.

It was overall an easy float, and for someone who knew what they were...

This is a very nice park. $40-45 annual pass per vehicle, and a fee to check in per visit if you don't buy the annual pass. Be prepared to fill out a form if you pay per visit. The only criticisms I have would be the complete lack of trash cans along the paved paths and throughout the park so there are lots of tossed cans, water bottles, food wrappers, bagged poop etc along trails that people opt not to walk for 1/2 mi or more before encountering a trash can to put it in. 2ndly, while dogs are required to be on a leash by law, some patrons take their dogs off the leash while on the trails or near the river or parking lots. This has led to some unnecessary encounters risking the safety of dog owners who DO observe the leash laws. I think the park should implement a muzzle requirement on all dogs that enter the park - for the safety of patrons and other dogs. 3rdly. there should be limitations barring walkways from bicyclists because some cyclists insist on barreling thru the paved walking trails at high rates of speed and have zero regard for young families with small children on these trails, the elderly and moms with strollers who are present -- an accident waiting to happen. There are ample roads used by thru vehicles connecting both park entrances that these less-considerate cyclists should use rather than speed down the walking paths and/or ride in 'packs' that monopolize the paved pedestrian walking trails. The river is a beautiful feature - If you choose to float down the river, ALWAYS wear a life vest (children and dogs on floats and boats should wear these as well) -as there are gentle and intense rapids all along the river and despite what appears to be low levels, there are currents trap and pull and drownings occurred in what would seem shallow water. Drownings here happen more often than it should; life vests make all the difference. Lastly, it is commonly known to people who have lived in the area for a while, but after heavy rains, the river has a high level of bacteria from raw sewage runoff caused by overflowing storm drains and poor management by local water treatment facilities. The bacteria causes severe illness to humans and can be deadly; even dogs that have drank from it have died when owners didn't realize the toxic levels...

My boyfriend and I had a tradition of trying to see as many Christmas light displays possible during the holidays, so I had the idea of making a trip from Savannah to see these. I was HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED IN MY EXPERIENCE. We aren't familiar with the area so we were using a GPS to get there and were about to merge onto the road where it was located, but they were only allowing the left lane to turn into the display and wouldn't allow anyone to get in that lane. So we had to drive turn around and get back in the other side of the lane to get "in line". We drove all the way here, so we decided to wait and ended up waiting an hour and a half to see these lights. The traffic control was managed so poorly. We finally get there and the lights are neat but there was NO SIGNS ANYHWERE directing you. We ended up having to go around twice because the left lane allowed you to park and get out and the right lane took you to the exit. We finally park and go to check out the walking portion only to learn that it was roped off due to rainy weather earlier in the week. There was NOTHING POSTED ON THEIR WEBSITE ABOUT HALF OF THE EXPERIENCE BEING CLOSED! I was so frustrated, we should have at least gotten to pay - $5 because a portion wasn't open. Lastly we find out there is hay rides and train rides so we decided to do a hay ride. We thought we were going to see something different and cool, but what does our driver do.... HE GETS BACK IN THE LONG LINE OF CARS AND JUST TAKES US THROUGH THE SAME LIGHTS. I could've been in my warm car listening to Christmas music, not on a "hay ride" with no hay. They need to change it to a "Tractor Ride" because thats what it was. I just paid $5 to see the same thing. We just hopped off the tractor 1/4 of the ride because we were done. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE AT ALL. If you are interested in Christmas lights go to James Island County Park in Charleston, it's...