Musgrove Mill State Park (Part 1)

Hey There! Today we visit Musgrove Mill State Park. This is a free park that is in-between Columbia and Greenville/Spartanburg. The main entrance is only a couple miles off the highway and easy to find, just follow the signs! I was a little confused at first looking up this state park online as there are two different sections that require you to drive to get to them, and because of this I'm going to cover it in two parts. Part one will be the main park area and part two will be the "battlefield" trail on the secondary area.

The main park entrance is nice and takes you to the ranger building with information and a little shop.
There was a house here at one time, now just some stairs and trees, pretty cool little spot closed in by the old style fence. This sits just in front of the main building.




The trail at the main site is pretty easy, mostly level and follows the river a good bit. You can start the trail from either direction. This trail is about 1.5 miles.


Most of the trail is well kept with steps and little bridges where needed. There is a little elevation at the start and finish of the trail (the river is below the main area) but it's not strenuous.



If you start the trail at the main parking lot you go thru a small wooded area and end up at a memorial for Mary Musgrove right before entering a large field - near the end of the hike if you start at the lake. A good reminder that our freedom was bought with a price that everyone paid - civilian, soldier, man and woman.


This part of the trail is the only part that wasn't marked very good. But just keep heading away from the main building and you'll find where it picks back up!


There are several historical markers along the trail as it continues beside the river including a spot where the old mill stood.



The trail along the river is mostly flat but beware, if you go after a good rain it will be muddy! There is also a great variety of plant life and trees!




On the other side of the river is a canoe/kayak launch that you can see from the trail, there used to be an old bridge at this spot also, but you can't get as good a view of that as from the boat launch side.



There's also a small stream that you cross over, it was pretty active this day as I came after a nice rain. This feeds into the river and runs close to an old road that crossed where the old bridge used to be.


There is also a nice lake by the main building and parking lot, you cross over a land bridge at the edge of it as part of the trail. There are several great spots for having a picnic.



This is a really nice park that has a lot of diversity and covers a large area. Being split in two and with the diversity of both areas it's almost like visiting two separate parks. Both areas are well maintained and the trails are marked well - aside from the field behind the main building. The main park has the easier (and shorter) hike, keep that in mind depending on the amount of activity you're up for! I highly recommend this park as a good place to get a good hike in and visit our rich history. This would also be a great place for a picnic! Go check it out!!