Santee State Park, SC, US – Lake Marion View from Above
Santee State Park is in the Sandhills of South Carolina on the western edge of the 110,000-acre (445 km2) Lake Marion. It is located off SC 6, three miles (5 km) northwest of the town of Santee and I-95.
Lake Marion is the largest lake in South Carolina, centrally located and with territory within five counties. The lake is referred to as South Carolina’s inland sea. It has a 315-mile (507 km) shoreline and covers nearly 110,000 acres (450 square kilometers or 173.7 square miles) of rolling farmlands, former marshes, and river valley landscape.
The Santee River was dammed in the 1940s to supply hydroelectric power, as part of the rural electrification efforts initiated under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression. This created Lake Marion, one of the fifty largest lakes in the United States, whether natural or man-made reservoirs.
The park offers boating, hiking, camping, birding, canoeing and kayaking. Well known for fishing, this park offers a chance to catch record size Largemouth Bass. Other fish that abound are Striped bass, Channel catfish, Trout, White Perch, White bass, Crappie, Shellcrackers and Bream and Chain (Jack). Lake Marion can be accessed by two boatramps that the park has.
The 2,500-acre (10.1 km2) park was created in 1942 when Orangeburg County donated the land. It has 2 campgrounds. Cypress View Campground has 50 sites and Lakeshore Campground has 108 sites. Restroom facilities with hot showers are accessible by both campgrounds. Many sites can accommodate RVs up to 40 feet in length. There are also 30 rondette cabins, each with 2 bedroom and 1 bath, 10 of which are on piers over the lake.
The park has 3 hiking trails and 1 biking trail. The “Limestone Nature Trail” and the “Oak Pinolly Nature Trail” are 1 mile hiking trails. The “Sinkhole Pond Nature Trail” is a half mile hiking trail. The biking trail is 7 miles long.
Video Source: Santee State Park – Lake Marion, South Carolina // 4K – DJI Mavic Pro 2. Drone Footage from Paul King – Nature In 4K on Youtube ⁄ CC BY
