Our visit to Paris Mountain State Park in Greenville, S.C., was one of our more interesting camping experiences. We were in town primarily to spend time with family while doing a bit of touring. Therefore, we did not spend a great deal of time in the park itself, but it was long enough for us to determine that we would rather not stay there again. For other campers, though, it might be just the ticket.
When we arrived at Paris Mountain, a nasty storm had come through the night before, not only knocking down trees and limbs, but also the power. It took them two days to restore the power. (The wife was not cool with this.) Additionally, the park had advertised that it provided split firewood for campers since the park does not want firewood to be transported into the park due to the risk of the emerald ash borer–but the splitter was broken, and therefore there was no wood split. We didn’t have anything to cut wood with, and in the middle of the summer, none of the area stores were selling firewood–we drove all over looking. So instead I was left to split wood with a hand hatchet–talk about painstaking. I guess this means I need to be better prepared–more tools!
Aside from these isolated issues, however, there were other reasons this visit didn’t measure up to our liking. If you have a big RV or large Travel Trailer I’m pretty sure that the turns on the access road would be extremely challenging. We did this trip with the Flagstaff pop-up camper and I would NOT attempt to take the new 32 Ft Keystone Travel Trailer up the access road. The bathrooms were also dated and dingy, and during the time of our visit, were not stocked with soap.
?????more info about sites? paved roads? other park attractions.????
Outside of the campground, visiting with family and taking in a few of the local scenes kept our young family busy:
- Our kids loved searching for the Mice on Main hidden throughout the downtown region. It provided a perfect distraction as we adults visited an open air festival.
- If you are looking for a perfect picnic spot, a photo op, or just a nice stroll, you’ll want to check out Falls Park on the Reedy. Located in downtown Greenville’s Historic West End, it features a pretty awesome curved and cantilevered bridge, a falls, and gardens.
- For those with younger children, you should consider checking out the Children’s Garden at Linky Stone Park. The creatively designed space featured a rainbow garden, fairy tale forest, sculptures and much more. Although it’s not a huge area (and it’s tucked into the downtown region) our kids stayed entertained for awhile.
[flagallery gid=5]
Campground contact information: http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/parismountain/introduction.aspx
Site Number: 28
Reason for visit: Visiting family in the Greenville area
Date(s) of visit: July 2011
*Since we took this trip before we created The Touring Camper, several areas of the following chart are blank as we don’t recall all the specifics about this park.
Leave a Reply