Free camping is either a hit or a total bust, but whatever the case, you get what you paid for! In this destination guide learn everything there is to know about boondocking at Honey Hill Campground in South Carolina.
By Bekah Whitney
There are not too many places to camp for free near the coast of South Carolina that are not parking lots. The best one we found was Honey Hill located in the Francis Marion National Forest, North of Charleston, South Carolina. This little camp loop is great if you are okay with driving more than 30 minutes each way to get somewhere else.
Location: Francis Marion National Forest in Jamestown, SC
Amenities: Vault toilet & picnic tables
Reservations: First come first serve
Time of year: Year-round
Type of Camping: Primitive, dry camping, Boondocking
Number of sites: 8
Cell Service: Verizon had enough internet to stream, AT&T didn’t get anything
Fees: Free, 14-day stay limit
Interesting Features: Old Fire Lookout Tower
There honestly isn’t too much close to Honey Hill. That being said we found a lovely walk in the forest a close 15 minute drive away as well as a very fun and sort of flowy mountain bike trail about 40 minutes driving away. Here is our list of activities we did during our short stay at Honey Hill that we would recommend.
This “hike” is more of a lovely walk through the forest. Many reviews mentioned swarms of bugs, snakes, and high water, but luckily the dry December weather made these concerns non-existent for us.
Length: 11.2 Miles Round Trip, Out & Back
Elevation Gain: 49 ft
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 33.06131, -79.69050
Or Type in: Palmetto Trail – Swamp Fox Passage
Getting there: Take a left from Honey Hill Campground onto Highway 45. Drive for 0.2 of a mile and take a left onto Halfway Creek road. You will stay on this for about 11 miles. At the intersection of Halfway Creek and Steed Creek, you will proceed straight through the intersection and see the small dirt parking lot on your left.
The hike: Once parked the trail will start out left towards the highway, don’t worry though you quickly walk away from the highway noise. The path just continues through the swamp, pine forest, and marshy meadows and we turned around a few miles in because we got a late start. It would have been fun to bike on as well.
Let me start by saying this area of South Carolina is very flat and I had no expectations. This little track is super fun, fast, and is a little flowy at times. We had an absolute blast here.
Length: 4.6 Miles Round Trip, Loop (My ride only recorded 4 miles)
Elevation Gain: 266’ up, 266’ down
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 33.20429, -79.98205
Or Type in: Biggin Creek MTB Trail
The ride: Since we were there on an odd day, we rode the trail counterclockwise, but the wooden features scattered along the trail were fun to hit from both sides. I turned around to test a few out the other way. On the day we rode it was 73 degrees with 73% humidity. It was a very fun ride with some flowy parts, but some of the steep hills ended in sharp turns which killed a lot of momentum. I ended the ride smiling and wondering if we should do it again. The loop took us 40 minutes to complete with a few stops for photos and such.
Although Honey Hill is in the middle of nowhere, it is located in between two very fun towns if you are willing to drive about an hour each way.
Myrtle Beach is a very different scene than we saw in December and off-season. The drive is a leisure 65 miles which takes about an hour and a half up 17 North. Once in Myrtle Beach, we quickly found free public beach parking and made ourselves a spot on the beach. We spent the afternoon skimboarding, playing frisbee, and watching dolphins and birds.
Although we decided to skip the shopping, we did find a Mexican Restaurant that had a decent Happy Hour and amazing food! Mexico Lindo on Kings Highway might not look like much from the outside, but the $4 happy hour margaritas brought us in and the delicious food left us raving
Hi! I’m Bekah, but you can call me Beks, all my friends do! I travel full-time in a tiny home on wheels that my partner, Sawyer, and I built from a cargo trailer shell in 2019. We started out in beautiful Colorado and have been all over the United States over the years. This space is designed to inspire and guide the nature obsessed nomad, weekend warrior, and future roadlifer. I’m so excited you’re here!
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Charleston is the place you want to go if you are looking to shop, find neat gifts, or love art galleries. The drive to Charleston takes about an hour to go the 46 miles it takes to get there. There is a lot of parking near downtown that is paid by meter. After walking through the Market and visiting multiple art galleries it was time to find some food. Although we were searching for a patio, we were hoping to find a good deal first. If you wanted to, you could spend a fortune on interesting things in Charleston, and you could eat at a neat rooftop bar where the cocktails were $15.
We noticed a little restaurant called Hyman’s Seafood on Meeting Street that had a happy hour from 4:00 – 6:00 with cheap drinks and $5 appetizers if you sat at the bar. Also, a friendly man in a Santa suit handed us each a hush puppy as we walked by and we came back later. It was great marketing.
If you look at the reviews on Free Campsites you will notice many reviews mentioning hoards of bugs, my favorite being “We were greeted by 100 horse flies”. Since we were there in December we had no issues at all. I did find a small tick on Yukon so if you are camping with animals, I would suggest checking them after hikes and walks in the grass.
When we first arrived it was clear there had not been a ranger there in a long time. There were people who had been there for months and one trailer that was just being stored there. We had conversations with two other campers there that were extremely friendly, but remember that National Forest is public land and to lock up. A sheriff did drive around once while we were there to check on things so if you have any problems there is still someone patrolling.
As I said it was obvious that a ranger hadn’t been there in a while and the biggest giveaway was the condition of the bathroom. We have a composting toilet so we always have toilet paper, but make sure if you are boondocking, even in campgrounds, to carry an extra roll or two with you!
Honey Hill campground is a decent spot to stay for a few days. Everything exciting is a drive away, but worth it if you haven’t been to those places before. We stayed for 5 days and were ready to leave by the end of it. The firetower was a highlight. If it was bug season, I think we would have left immediately.
Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts on staying at Honey Hill, if you did any other hiking / mountain biking that you enjoyed, and if you have any questions we didn’t answer!
We wanted a watercraft for a long time, but didn’t quite know what to pull the trigger on. We wanted something that was durable and folded up nice and small. After watching videos of a jeep driving over the kayak and hit it with a hammer, we knew it was the one for us!
If you don’t already have a hammock, you really need to get on it! The Eno is a lightweight, packable, and durable hammock perfect for anyone living on the road. We have a single nest because neither of us seem to want to be in the hammock at the same time, but they do make a Double Nest if you are looking to cuddle up with your significant other in it.
Listen, everyone with photos of their van door wide open has flies. Adding a screen door was an absolute game-changer for us, plus it is attached through velcro so that you can easily remove it when you are ready to take those idyllic photos. If you haven’t hit the road yet, just get one. If you already have, this is the answer to your fly problem, you’re welcome.
