James Island County Park Campground Review
James Island County Park Campground is a great place to camp in the city of Charleston, SC while also enjoying the natural vegetation of wild South Carolina. The campground is located inside James Island County Park.
The park itself has lots to do for families and kids as well as trails for walking or bike riding. You can see alligators in their natural habitats, as well as storks, pelicans, and a variety of other wildlife.
Downtown Charleston is a quick 15 minute drive from James Island County Park Campground where you can see the historic waterfront and enjoy local eateries.
Amenities
All types of campers are welcome at James Island County Park Campground. The campground offers full hookups, just water/electric hookups, as well as primitive camping. There is a dump station right at the front/exit of the campground that was easy to use. The campground bathrooms were very clean, including the showers. I was also pleased that the showers were hot!
The campground offers laundry facilities ($4 a load) and free WiFi. In our experience, the WiFi wasn’t very good. Cell service was also super spotty on the campground.
Three bedroom cottages are also available for rent with a two night minimum.
James Island County Park Campground is a great place to take the whole family with an expansive list of things to do.
Bike Trails
There are 3 paved trails that go through James Island County Park. They are each loops that are each around 1.5 miles long. They also connect with each other.
The green trail takes you down to a beautiful marsh area and is the most wooded of the three. The blue trail takes you down to the primitive camping, group camping, and Adventure Zone (slack line and climbing walls). The orange trail takes you around a large pond where the dog park is located.
We saw alligators in their natural habitat going down the orange trail. That was an incredible experience!
Activities
James Island Park has a water park and a splash pad during the warmer months. There are also 3 different playground structures kids can play on.
They are all located right next to each other and there are signs that say one is for 5 year olds and under and the other two structures are for older kids. There is an Adventure Zone that offers slack lining and climbing walls.
When we visited the cost of participating was $20/per person for 2 hours. Near the Adventure Park there is a disc golf course in the woods.
There was a central park office where you could rent bicycles and paddle boats. There were all different sizes of bikes, including balance bikes for the very little ones.
James Island County Park Campground also has a ping pong table and foosball at the activity center. There is also a pond on the campground that has chair swings to sit in and watch nature or the sun sets. Near the center of the campground there are large chess pieces, horse shoe, ladder ball, and bocci ball.
Rainy Weather
Rain can cause a bit of flooding at James Island County Park Campground. After a day of rain our site was pretty soggy and the roads were a bit flooded.
After a day of sunshine it did clear up, be sure to pack your rain boots!
Overall we really enjoyed our stay at James Island County Park Campground in Charleston, SC. This campground is a great way to have the best of both worlds.
You can be downtown in minutes and enjoy the city life and the downtown atmosphere that Charleston has to offer.
Staying at the campground, you can also enjoy what untamed South Carolina looks like with wild palm trees and palmettos, big live oaks with Spanish moss, and animals in their natural habitat.
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