Aiken State Park

Hey There! We're back and hopefully have a fix for the blog site so there won't be any more interruptions. Thank you for your patience and bearing with us.

Today we visit Aiken State Park! From canoeing to camping to hiking this park has plenty to keep you busy! There's also good history here, as this park was built by the CCC. We weren't able to go on the canoe trail but have heard it's really good, maybe a follow up visit will happen soon!!



Today we hiked the jungle trail, it's 3 miles (Not including any extra exploring!) but relatively flat. There are shortcuts you can take if you don't want to hike the whole trail. One of the shortcuts is where the trail crosses the road, if you started the trail at the lake and took a right at the splits you'll come to this spot and all you have to do is hang a left walk along the road and you'll come across the trailhead further up the road.

The trail is well marked and varies a lot in vegetation. The start of it is mainly piney woods, then you traverse into other and thicker vegetation. There are sections of the trail where you are on a raised boardwalk due to the swampy area.

There are a few (But not a whole lot) learning stations along the trail to provide a break and good information. Most of the stations were in good condition.


Some parts of the trail are very thick and overgrown, it lives up to the jungle name! There were a few sections of boardwalk that were damaged but it looked fresh and hopefully will be fixed soon.



There's plenty of beauty at this park, sometimes you have to look to see it!



The park has a really nice campground, it's very level and as you can see in the middle of tall pines. We will probably be back to camp here in the future! They also have several of the original buildings from the CCC, there's history stations around them to tell you the stories.



This is a great park and we look forward to visiting again and do some camping and canoeing. Scroll down past this to see a few more pictures from the park and as always, be sure to read the rest of this blog to see our other state park adventures and then visit our website to see the pictures in higher resolution and the ones that didn't make it into the blog! Fine art prints are available for purchase at my site also. Be sure to connect with us on social media! All this can be found at our site: http://www.centerlightstudios.com.

Technical Difficulties

Hey Everyone!! Please bear with us the Blogger hosting site has changed a few things and I'm no longer able to create photo blog posts !!!! I am trying to find out if this is going to be fixed or not, if not we'll have to move our blog to a new host. Don't worry we'll do our best to keep everything in order!! Thank you for your patience and we'll let you know soon!!

Barnwell State Park

Hey there! Today we visit Barnwell State Park! This is a really nice park that sits on two small lakes. This park is also close to about 5 other state parks (close enough to get them all in with an extended weekend!) and they have specials for the ultimate outsider program from time to time. Be sure to check out their website for details! The park has a small (some sites do have RV hookups) campground, great cabins, trails, meeting centers and even a volleyball court.



There's a lot of history at this park, the dam and a few other structures were built by the CCC in the 40's. There's plenty to explore and enjoy here, it's great getting to see the history preserved so well!



The two lakes are great for fishing, they're separated by a small land dam. you can rent small boats to take out on them, just watch out for alligators! If you camp there be sure to get up early enough to catch the sunrise over the lake!



We were able to hike the lake trail at the park, it was very well maintained and not too difficult. Expect to hike about 2 miles if you do the full lake trail. You get to see the lake a good bit with a few parts going thru the woods. The trail starts at the ranger station but you can get to it from the campground, the cabins and a few of the picnic shelters.



Aside from the very nice lake views the trail has a good variety of vegetation and wildlife, we did see deer but were unable to get any pictures this time!



There were a few "learning" stations along the trail as well. Some even had "lids!"



























This is one of our favorite midlands park so far. There is a lot to see and do here, for being a smaller park they've fit a lot in. The shelters,campground and trails are all very well maintained. There's also a good amount of history, it's well worth staying at this park for a day or two. Scroll down past this to see a few more pictures from the park and as always, be sure to read the rest of this blog to see our other state park adventures and then visit our website to see the pictures in higher resolution and the ones that didn't make it into the blog! Fine art prints are available for purchase at my site also. Be sure to connect with us on social media! All this can be found at our site: http://www.centerlightstudios.com.