Again the time came to move on so we packed up the RV and entered another state into South Carolina. We were heading to a new, for us, campground named Conerose Campground which is a COE campground located on the huge Lake Hartwell.
Near the small town of Townville, SC this is another fabulous COE campground. We did run into a challenge getting there though. I knew from looking at the drive using Google Satellite View that the last few miles would be on crappy roads. What we didn’t know was that we would have to make two u-turns to get to the park. Yikes! However, it was our own fault using our GPS and not noticing beforehand there were two Conerose roads.
We finally arrived at the gate house and were informed that someone was still in the site. No biggie. I politely asked where we could park to wait and the gate attendant curtly states we have to leave the park outside the gate. She proceeds to tell us to make a u-turn behind the gate house, which is totally impossible for our sized rig to do.
I explain this to her so then I was told that I should drive through the host loop to get turned around which I was able to do. Outside the gate house I pull over on the narrow road so I could get out to assess what lies ahead to do yet another U-turn so I would be pointed back toward the park. That’s when Miss Surly sternly hollers that I can’t park there as I am not yet outside the gate!
To which I say, sorry, but I am going to look at my U-turn options ahead before moving any further. She then tells me I can do a loop through the neighborhood. And marches back to her gate house. As I peruse my options once again her advice would have been dreadful for our sized RV so I found a spot where we could back into and turn around once unhitched.
We waited an hour and a half before the person finally departed our site. As we were checking in little Miss Surly had suddenly become little Miss Bubbly only after Sharon emotionally confronted her about her lack of useful information in front of a co-worker. I am guessing she was afraid of being reported. Unfortunately she is not the first surly camp host we have encountered and I am sure not the last. Some people relish the power embodied by being a camp host while others are truly welcoming.
Once settled we loved our large and heavily wooded site. We chose this area as it was close to Clemson SC and we wanted to visit the University. A short drive away we found the University and both felt it was a bit underwhelming especially after visiting the magnificent University of Alabama (maybe we had overhyped our expectations). We did stroll around a bit but the highlight was the SC Botanical Gardens on the campus.
We hiked a beautiful lush trail along a creek and encountered lots of birds and beautifully landscaped planting. Near the end of the trail was a small cabin that reminded us of one of our stays in a cabin in Gatlinburg TN near a babbling creek. We highly recommend this short hike as there is much to see. Many of today’s photos are from this garden. It was very enjoyable and washed away all the unpleasantness from the day before.
