Lake Jocassee in South Carolina

Trip Overview

Double Springs Campground at Lake Jocassee

This was a kayak camping trip, supported with a pontoon boat from Lake Jocassee Tours (Brooks Wade). There were 10 boaters, including two small pre-teen girls and we combined camping, lake kayaking, a boat-shuttle to the top end of the lake with a paddle to different waterfalls, and a sunset cruise on the pontoon boat.

It was a great combination of exercise and relaxation, the weather was perfect, the camping was quiet and isolated, and the lake scenery was fantastic.

Lake Jocassee was created in the early 1970s to provide hydro electric power for Duke Power Company. It flooded a large number of deep canyons, providing spectacular scenery as well as lots of water storage for Upstate South Carolina. The result is a deep, clear, cold lake that is far enough from the rest of the world that there are not a lot of boats screaming around, and very few jet skiis and high-speed craft like one sees on so many lakes in the Carolinas. Jocassee is close enough to major cities like Asheville and Greenville, yet other options keep the traffic quite low, even on Memorial Day Weekend.

You can see more pictures at:
www.greenville.outdoorclubsouth.com/photos/8582382/

Accommodations:

Double Springs Campground: PRIMITIVE

Pit toilet. No water. No shelter.

There are single and double site camps. We were in a double -- Number 10.
Best site would be either Number 1, which is on the point and close to the water, and Number 13 (double) that is on a ridge and has lake views on both sides of camp.

There are other campers, but this is NOT a campground. We had contact with them on the landing areas / beach but not while camping. Campsites are arranged in a row along the ridge and there is not any foot traffic between campsites.

Outfitting:

We used flatwater kayaks, for the most part. We did have support of a 25' pontoon boat, which made everything more convenient and also served as great support.

We can recommend Lake Jocassee Tours (.com) as good people to engage in your planning.

Fees:

Yes.

Car entrance fee / parking fee and campsite fee.

Directions:

Head to Salem, SC and to Devils Fork State Park on Lake Jocassee. The multi-use kayak put-in is at the top (North) end of the Park, past the regular campgrounds.

There are 13 primitive sites at Double Springs Campground and the access is by boat-only. It is about a 1-mile kayak paddle and there are powerboat campers at this site.