Little Red's Fifth State Park

This past weekend we traveled to Cheraw State Park and Campground and it was awesome!  We found out that this state park is one of the largest in the country with a little over 7 thousand acres!  This wooded campground sits on Lake Juniper which provides a beautiful view and great fishing as well as space for canoeing and kayaking.   We would definitely recommend putting it on your list of must see SC State Parks!

This was also another dog friendly park.  They are welcome everywhere with the exception of the cabins.  Lucy loved it and enjoyed walks and scoping out other four legged friends and there were lots.

The picture above was taken up by the park office which is very

nice.  During peak months there are canoes and kayaks for rent.  They also have a loaner program for fishing - something we had not come across before.  If you don't have rods and such they will loan them to you for use on the lake.  There is a beautiful walk between the office and campground which takes you across the spillway and we estimated it to be a couple of miles total there and back.

This was our set up and we had a nice level space on site 4.  We could access the lake through a short walk through the woods to put the canoe in and Greg really enjoyed a paddle across the lake and back.  The campground is in a circle shape with only about 17 sites - very cozy.  It was fairly full for January and we loved that.  We walked through and checked out the sites and most were level and a good size with fire rings and picnic tables with gravel.  No Wifi here but we were fine and got fairly good reception with air TV during this stay.   There is a hot spot up at the camp office if you need to do any quick checks.  There are picnic sheds and tables scattered around.


One thing we would caution is to be careful when following your GPS to find this campground.  There is a Cheraw State Park Road which is the back side of the park and a very locked gate.  We were told this was the old entrance but since we arrived after dark we thought the park was locked up for the night and we wouldn't be able to get in. Lucy and I got adventurous and stepped over the gate and started walking while Greg was making phone calls.  We got a good ways down the road when we saw a sign facing away from us and when we got to it, it read "For Park Staff Only".  Okay that freaked us a bit and it was getting darker by the minute so we hoofed it back to the car quickly!  After making calls to the park ranger and local sheriff's office we found out that the real entrance was a few miles down the road and was not locked at night.  Some state parks have locked gates and require a code to get in which they will give you if you are arriving after dark.  We have found that a phone call to request the code in advance usually takes care of that problem and saves an argument upon arrival.  😀  .

As I mentioned in my previous post about Cheraw, there is a beautiful golf course within this state park.  When Greg went up and talked to the golf pro he actually offered a free golf cart to tour the course.  We ran into quite a few groups golfing during our stay.  The guys are planning a trip back to check out the course.

Another lesson learned - don't use your expensive cell phone as a flashlight!  I really can't see well in the dark and I was trying to make my way to the bath house before we set up. I had Lucy on her leash and when she bolted to catch up with Greg I ran smack into the picnic table which I absolutely could not see.  Not sure what actually transpired but I looked down to find my five month old phone on the ground face up with a hole right through the screen and a spider crack all across the face.  Bummer!!  Luckily I have insurance but getting a refurbished replacement was not cheap.

We had a short but very enjoyable visit to this state park and we definitely give it a big ole 5 out of five campers.  It hit all of our important points and we would absolutely recommend it and we will return.

We are still definitely enjoying our Little Red Retro and the more we use it the more we love it.  It is just the perfect size for us and Lucy of course and she feels very at home in it.  If anyone out there has any questions about it or wants to see anything specific, just let us know.

I apologize for the spacing in this post - I just could not get it to work right.  Hopefully next time. 😉