Croft State Park, Spartanburg, S.C.

We stayed at Croft State Park in Spartanburg, S.C., while visiting family in the Greenville, S.C., area earlier this year. This 7,000 acre park has 45 campsites, so it’s not a very big campground. Since we spent most of our time with family, we didn’t have a lot of time to explore the park, but it offers 12 miles of biking and hiking trails as well as equestrian facilities and trails. Croft even had a riding ring and a campground barn with 48 stalls that can be reserved so campers can bring their horses with them.

The ranger that helped us check in was very friendly and we were very glad that we arrived before 6 p.m. since we learned that the main gate into the park and campground is locked at 6 p.m. during the off-season. Although campers receive a lock code to come and go after hours, anyone hoping to check in after hours is going to have some difficulty during the off-season months!

We stayed in the upper loop where the bathroom was practically brand new. (It received Kristin’s stamp of approval!) We discovered when we arrived that the site we had reserved was so sloped we couldn’t get the camper level. Fortunately it was not a busy time of year and the campground was practically empty, so we were able to move to Site 8, which was perfect. There were some other sites–18, 19, 20, and 21–that we noticed had sloping, which may also make leveling (front to back) difficult. Standard campsites at Croft were very reasonably priced at between $14-$18 a night, and they included electric and water–no full hook-ups, though. (A nice feature of Croft’s reservation webpage is that you can view a small picture of what each site looks like before you reserve.) The roads and campsite driveways in the loops were gravel, so no bike riding this time.

Over in the lake loop, where most sites had a view of the lake, there were a lot more sites in use. But the lake loop bathroom had not been remodeled. Additionally, we noticed that many of the lake loop sites were smaller and had steep inclines or drop offs. Although the lake view was nice, we preferred the upper, wooded loop.

Our stop at Croft was at the end of our Southern tour of Charleston and Savannah. So on our way home we took a break from touring to spend time visiting family. But on past trips to the Greenville region we have enjoyed:

• Searching with our kiddos for the Mice on Main.
• Strolling and enjoying a picnic lunch at Falls Park on the Reedy.
• Taking the kiddos to explore the Children’s Garden at Linky Stone Park.
• Enjoying some good southern BBQ at Henry’s Smokehouse–yum!

Date of visit: March 2014