COLORS AT CALHOUN

After enjoying the coast, it was time for us to head back to more familiar terrain. Lakes and mountains

Stop number three was another new park for us called Calhoun Falls State Park. If you follow along with us, you probably recall Hamilton Branch and Baker Creek being some of our favorite spots to camp. Calhoun Falls is located around the same area, just further down the Savannah River.

We left the coast the morning after Christmas. It was going to be a four-hour journey across all of SC to make it over to the Georgia border. As we drove, we started to see the terrain change back to more mountain and remote with less and less weepy trees and a bit more pine trees.

When we passed through our favorite little town of McCormick, we decided to stop in and grab some groceries. I pulled up Google Maps, and it didn't look like much was in the area, so one last stop for food before our last two campgrounds seemed like a good idea.

Loaded up on "sodas" and some necessities, we continued on for 35 more minutes before pulling into the campground. When we got to the park it took some time to find our site. The park was huge. It has a boat ramp/marina area, a beach area, two campgrounds, and much more! When we rolled up to our site (54) we both sighed. It was a looker; that's for sure.

The park was absolutely beautiful around the lake. Our site backed right up to the water with steps to access the lake. It was the perfect canoe spot!

We backed the Coleman in and decided to run down to the fishing pier behind our site to catch the sunset. The colors were gorgeous! (Hence the blog title). Luna started to let us know it was dinner time, so we headed back to the site to make a fire for the evening. There was lots and lots of firewood around the site, so we didn't even purchase any the first few nights. Tired from a day of driving, we spent the evening sitting by the fire enjoying our new home for the next few days. 

The next morning, Cameron wrote while I worked out and walked around the park. The great part about state parks is that you usually never have to leave to go get exercise. There is plenty of walking and hills to keep you busy! I did a few miles before heading back to meet up with Cameron and Luna.

We decided to try out the lone hike that was on the park map. It showed a decent 1.75 mile hike in the park. What it didn't show was the 3 miles of walking it took to get to the entrance of the hike!

We made our way through the whole park, exploring all the recreation areas. We both agreed that Calhoun definitely was one of the best parks we have been to. Their facilities and day use areas were in pristine condition and had the most of any park we have seen!

The trail led us over to the second campground, which was closed for the season (most large parks close down some sites for winter since there are less visitors coming usually). Cameron found a playground and decided to swing like a kid before we made our way back to our campsite for some snacks and rest. 

We hung out at our site, enjoying the warmish day before deciding to take the canoe out for a paddle. We were hopeful there would be another awesome sunset like the previous night. The site was easy to launch from. We paddled out into the waters and did a small loop to see where we hiked earlier in the day. We floated around until the sun was starting to set. We made our way to the open water to get a good shot of it going down. We were not disappointed. Most of the boaters had gone in for the evening, so the water was perfectly calm as the sun set over it. We both sat quietly taking the views in just appreciating the perfect evening. 

Like any good campers, we decided to make a fire and relax with some bacon and egg sandwiches over the fire. Apparently, the fire wanted to be as unenjoyable as possible and decided to blow smoke in our faces the whole time we were cooking! But regardless, it was still and "egg"celent evening. 

The next morning while Cameron banged out some writing, I did my typical morning exercise exploring the park. It was our last full day before the next campground, so we had to get everything we wanted to finish done!

We checked out the park store and bought some cool knick-knacks. A local fisherman made unique earrings out of fishing lures, so I bought a pair that had mountains on them. They were pretty neat!

We went for another nice long walk, checking out all the day use areas before Cameron hopped on a work call for a little. With tired legs after several days of hiking, it was time to chill for the rest of the day. We hung around the park until sunset where we did a mini photoshoot, since the sky was incredible. I might be bias, but these are some of my favorite pictures yet! 

After a fabulous three days, it was time to pack up one final time and head to Lake Hartwell State Park. We will be back again Calhoun Falls!