★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Charleston County
Drive-up · public land · Charleston County, SC · 33.15422, -79.36692
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Permit required for this beautiful free camping location at Santee Coastal Reserve. Spanish moss and wildlife in beautiful natural setting. Several campsites with tables and fire rings, but primitive with no toilet. Great opportunity for hiking and enjoying South Carolina character. Room for several vehicles. Assume mosquitos in summer. Poor cell service. Highly recommend.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 6 January 2018. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Charleston County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 14 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Charleston CountyNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Charleston County · Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests · SC
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail7 mi
- FFuel8 mi
- GGrocery8 mi
- RxPharmacy16 mi
- WWater20 mi
- HHardware22 mi
- EVEV fast charger23 mi
- MMechanic23 mi
- ShShower30 mi
- +Urgent care32 mi
- OOutfitter34 mi
- LLaundry34 mi
- AAir-up42 mi
- DDump46 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 8 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Charleston County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
14 ft
Ground slope
1.6% · flat
County
Charleston County, SC
Coordinates
33.15422, -79.36692
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Charleston County · Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests · SC (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSouth Santee River · ~0.5 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townCollins Creek · ~2.5 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelBP · ~7.5 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~7.7 mi
- PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~16.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicTidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital · ~16.3 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~22.2 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Highly recommended
EV charging — from Charleston County · Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests · SC — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger23.1 mi straight-line NE — Tidelands Ford, Pawleys Island, SC (at a public site) · RED_E · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 26 within 50 · 67 within 100 · 192 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)31.6 mi — Market at Oakland - Tesla Supercharger, Mt. Pleasant
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO41.4 mi — HONC HONC PUBLIC #1, North Charleston
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)15.5 mi — GEORGETOWN CITY ORANGE ST 1 · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 396966 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Charleston County · Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests · SC — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletElmwood · ~6.7 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletHoney Hill · ~11.4 mi W · USFS
- Flush restroomBuckhall Recreation Area · ~13.8 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletWambaw Cycle · ~15.5 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Charleston County · Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests · SC
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps South Santee River as a perennial river, ~0.5 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 1.6% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Charleston County elsewhere
Other camps near Charleston County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Elmwood Campground~6.8 mi
- Francis Marion National Forest~11.3 mi
- Buckhall Campground~13.9 mi
- Guilliard Lake~17.1 mi
The unit that manages Charleston County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Charleston County are set by Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Charleston County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Charleston County, SC). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 6 January 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Charleston County
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Charleston County
Finding water out here →Reading a forest MVUM →Dumping grey & black →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →