Keowee Toxaway State Park — Attraction in Pickens

Overall it was a mediocre campground.

The Lake is narrow and not very swimmer or non-motorized boat friendly. Motorboats kinda hog it and theres not much parking. Like ~10 spots. I didn’t see anywhere for cars with boat trailers so there must be another put in spot somewhere else on the lake. If you are planning on kayaking, I recommend going a little further to Jocassee.

The tent sites are different sizes and some are pretty small. We were in tent site 1 and the parking spot is kinda hard to get in with a long heavy car. Definitely no room for a trailer.

The sites are very close to one another. The ground is very soft so our tent stakes didn’t stay in place and our rainflies flew off, but the tent pads are nice and pretty level, no huge gravel pieces or roots sticking up and the fire rings were in good shape. Noise was an issue for us, and because the woods were pretty thinned out, we had a hard time finding somewhere to hang our second hammock. Someone had dumped several large piles of spent charcoal around our site Ive never seen that before at a campground.

There are no sticks left around the campsite for starting a fire though, so you might need to gather some on a hike or split up your firewood into smaller pieces. The bathrooms are clean but outdated. The staff were...

Awesome park that is too often overlooked. If you are looking for a tranquil retreat and peaceful serenity, this is where you want to go. The park is well maintained and the park ranger/manager Kevin is tops in my book! He was friendly, knowledgeable, accomodating, and clearly does a stellar job operating the park. RV Campsites are beautifully positioned at the top of a hill offering words-cant-describe kind of views of the Blue Ridge Mountains at work. The tent sites are spacious and level with designated pads at the bottom of the hill. In between are the restroom & shower facilities which are clean and well maintained. This is a biggie for me, and am of the belief that a park's bathroom is the best indicator of the staff's dedication, pride, stewardship, ethics, and commitment to visitors. In other words, a SC state park's bathroom cleanliness and operational status will typically correlate directly to the overall quality of that park, and, ultimately, the level of satisfaction of a visitor's experience. But hey that's just me! No doubts you should visit this park, though. A Must see if you're on the hwy 11 corridor and don't forget to check out the gorges visitor center while you're...

Clean, well-maintained campsites with an additional area specifically for primitive tent camping. Easy access to Lake Keowee for swimming and kayaking, but no boat ramp. You won't fight for parking spaces with boat trailers, but the lake access lot does fill up quickly with cars. There's a lovely trail from the campground down to the lake though, so unless you are carrying kayaks or other equipment, you don't even need to drive to the lake access if you're camping. Cell reception is good at the campsites.

The surrounding area has plenty of great outdoor activities including beautiful hiking trails, good fishing holes/access points, historical cemeteries and preserved pioneer/Cherokee sites. The park by itself has several miles of great trails, and Table Rock State Park just a few miles up the road has many more.

Four stars were only given because of some excessively noisy campers after quiet hours. Park Rangers don't patrol in the middle of the night (hey, you're only paying $9-$11 for a GREAT tent site), and some campers can be a bit rowdy. That's only happened a few times though, as it will in any campground. Everything else...