Poinsett State Park

Beautiful state park with diverse plants and trees - great for hiking but even better for a trail/ mountain hike. Lovely lake with kayaks for rent, large playground, campground , bathrooms and office with info, merch and snacks. Definitely will return with my bike.

Beautiful place. There are many different trails to choose from. The park staff is amazing and very kind. I love going here. We stayed in a cabin and will definitely be going back.

Poinsett State Park is a smaller park and definitely one of the older parks in the system. Parks & Rec has been making improvements as the main road into the park is recently paved. The dump station in the campground was new and a new group camping area is under construction. I give the camping at Poinsett a 2/5. The campground area roads are very tight with some sharp turns that can make navigating with a trailer over 35 foot somewhat difficult. The campground roads are all loose dirt/sand/gravel mix and kick up a lot of dust every time someone drives through. We stayed in sites 2 & 3. Beware if you stay in site 2 it is very difficult to get into with large trees immediately on either side of the entrance, a tree in the middle of the site, and another tree on the opposite side of the road across from the entrance making it very hard to get into. Most of the campsites also had large exposed roots which are a risk of tripping and also making it difficult to get your camper in. When we stay in site 3 someone must have dumped their black tank on the ground as the site was very smelly of sewer gas. Make sure to bring bug spray and insect spray for the ground as there are ants everywhere. Sites were good sized. The bathrooms had no AC and were at least 10-15 degrees warmer than outside. Water pressure in the showers was amazing though! Outside of camping the rest of the park is a solid 4/5 ranking. There are over 25 miles of trails integrating with the nearby state forest and the Palmetto Trail system. Mountain biking was clearly a big activity. The office/store is medium sized and looks fairly new with nice picnic tables available. It sits near the lake and paddle boat and canoe rentals. There is also a small swimming area. Near by is a small waterfall where the old grist mill sat in the mid-1700s. There are quite a few shelters for large gatherings and 5 cabins.

A little out of the way but within a 1/2 day drive from my home. The park is well maintained for the most part. I visited not long after the tropical storm went through so some of the trails were not as kept as I expect they usually would be but the common areas were clean and maintained. The trails are marked and a map is available. Information on the park is easy to find. There is a gift shop and you are able to rent paddle boats and canoes for a fee to use in the lake. There is a public swimming access as well. The canal and little water fall were pretty to look at. Will definitely be back to check out the trails more and maybe try geocaching when the weather cools.

Love this park. We have been a few times now. This last time we went geocaching and had a wonderful adventure while we hiked the trails. We watched staff feed the snake in the office and got a shirt a cup. Staff was friendly. They cater to bikes on the trail! This was an amazing idea. They have a spot to repair your bike of inflate the tires. What a concept!