Aiken State Park

We stayed at the Aiken State Park and we surprised at how much we loved it! It was during the off season, so we were the only ones there (along with the campground manager), and we loved having the privacy.
The campground is full of dense pine forests. If you stay here, kayaking down the Edisto River is a must! The park ranger recommended it and we are so grateful he did. It is a windy blackwater river with a slow current which makes for a relaxing yet exciting ride.
There are drop in and pick up spots, but because it was off season the park was not running shuttles. We left the kayaks at the drop in, drove the car and left it at the pick up spot, then rode our bikes back a short mile to the drop in, and hopped in our kayaks. Once we finished kayaking, we came back with the car to pick up the bikes we left at the drop in. Easy peasy. It took us about two hours. We have our own kayaks, but the park also has canoes to rent. If we pass through to visit my grandmother again, we will be staying here!

Lots of trees but we had no problem parking our 39' 5W. It was quiet (especially during the week) and we enjoyed our time. Took a couple nice walks around the campground. It was pretty hot and muggy in the middle of June but we would definitely stay here again. There are a lot of different things to do (kayaking, canoeing, etc) which we would have loved to do but ran out of time.

Camped here several years ago. The campground is well maintained. Bathrooms are older, but clean. Bathrooms are heated, in fact, too heated. It was like a sauna and felt hard to breathe. They need to adjust the heat and probably save a lot of money!

They do currently have a handful of FHU sites. Though some of them are quite small. Getting into some sites can be tricky due to large trees.

While we did not do the canoe trail on the Edisto this trip, we have done it in the past and it is well worth it. You can relax and go with the flow of the river just paddling enough to steer.

The Jungle trail is nice; however, it is not currently a loop due to issues from a few years back. There are no signs giving current information about the section of trail that is closed, you just hit a dead end.

The town of Aiken was a very vibrant little town. Worth a visit. Hope Gardens in Aiken is also very much worth a visit.

Good place to go. Quiet and peaceful. Great hiking, fishing, biking. Pet friendly. Knowledgeable helpful rangers. No hassle attitude. Good boarded swamp nature trails. Canoeing on the Edisto river with rentals available at a reasonable price. 2 fishing lakes, lots of wildlife. Great bike loop around park with side trails. Big easy camp sites, all back in sites. Clean restrooms with good hot water. Good drinking water. Easy dump station. Grounds are locked at nite from outside traffic, very secure.

We were greeted by the camp host upon arrival. He gave us our parking tags and all the info on the park. We stayed 4 days. The swimming pond was clean, you could see to the bottom. The playground was well kept and in good shape. We took the kayak hike on the Edisto River. It’s 1.7 miles long. It was beautiful, easy paddle in a kayak. We rented 2 canoes, at $20.00 each. They came with 2 paddle’s and life jackets for everyone. We dropped our truck at the take out doc the ranger took us back to the put in dock. The canoes were difficult to maneuver the twists and turns. They rent kayaks too. We had fun. It was very relaxing and quite. It’s a small campground with 20 sites. The kids had plenty of room to play and were always in plain view. We will be camping there again.

We were passing through the area and wanted a quiet place to spend the night. We weren’t interested in activities. There is a two night minimum but we only stayed one night. I used a drive through so we wouldn’t need to unhook and used the dump station to empty the tanks so I feel we got our money’s worth considering the inexpensive rates. Lots of pines and pine needles! This is a well maintained campground. We had no service on our cell phones. I wouldn’t hesitate to return and spend more time there!

12 - 14 June 2020 We have relatives in Augusta Ga. and we wanted to go to Congaree National Park so this worked for us. There are 2 parts to this place, the camping/day use area and across the road a nice lake and one CC built Cabin. There is a lot of road to bike on in the park and a couple of hikes. There are several artesian wells in the park and the swimming lake has small springs in it. There was also some nice birding. We had to drive about 2 miles up the road to get ATT cell signal. There are a lot of big pines in the camping loop so rigs over 25 feet need to be able to back well. Some of the sites will not fit anything over about 20 feet. There is a 2 night minimum when we were there.

We've camped here at least four times over the past several years. Very nice, small park with good access to the Edisto River, which we paddle on kayak club trips. Not much to add to others comments, but it's a great place to get away from it all.

I did want to mention that we had great Verizon coverage, both cell and data and zero T-Mobile coverage on either cell or data, which was disappointing after others had commented on the availability of T-Mobile in the park.

I don't have an AT&T phone but those that do got no coverage. However, I do have an AT&T data connection through the wi-fi hotspot on my Chevrolet truck and was able to get a weak connection on it.

The park is a little run down and in need of some road work, but we enjoyed our stay. The sites are nicely spaced and a little larger than listed on the reservation form. Some sites are smaller and only van or tent suitable. There were only 5 or 6 campers here and a lot of open space. Bathrooms were clean and basic. The artesian spring in the park is great. As full timers, we are very picky about our drinking water and usually only drink spring water, and this water is great. Aiken is a very nice town and we had 4 or 5 very positive interactions with friendly locals. I missed the entrance and a couple local guys stopped to tell me an easy turn around spot. Strangely they charged a different fee for every night we stayed, from $22 to $38 per night. We like the simple state park vibe and this place has it.

We stayed here for 3 nights in December, 2021 and other than not having cell service, thought it was perfect! We had rain incoming, so do like having cell to track storms :)
Super nice rangers - even had a call ahead of time from one to tell me check in procedure and ask if I had any questions - also the 2 rangers inside the office were great!
Book exchange in the office and some cool items for sale.
Great walking around - loved the spring fed lakes and spring. Started the Jungle Nature Trail and after a day and a half of rain, it was boggy and impassable. Drenched our shoes and had to turn back, but still had a good time. Only a handful of other RVs / campers here so very quiet and pleasant! I will be adding a video here shortly. OH - signage finding the campground a bit odd. When you first turn in to the road, just make a quick turn into the park and stay to the left - keep going past the day use area and ranger office and you will get to the campground.