Buck Hall Recreation Area
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $20–$28Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 19All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Buck Hall Recreation Area offers a premier location to enjoy the outdoors. It is situated along the Intracoastal Waterway and provides great access to Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, 65,000 acres of marsh, tidal creeks and beaches; and Bulls Bay, the coast's best shrimp baiting area. Keep reading
Recreation
The area is primarily used for shrimp baiting and fishing. Anglers can expect a huge variety of fish, including bass, flounder, sea trout, snapper, mackerel, swordfish, crab, shrimp, clams, oysters and more. The campground provides access to boating and ocean sailing. Fishing boats and often very large pleasure boats can be seen as they travel the popular Intracoastal Waterway. A long portion of the Palmetto Trail, which leads from the marshes of the ocean to the mountains of South Carolina, is accessible from the recreation area. Most of the trail is unpaved and can be used for hiking, biking or horseback riding, although a few sections are restricted to foot traffic only.
Facilities
The recreation area boasts a large picnic area and multiple campsites for tent and RV camping. Electricity and water hookups are available. Each site is equipped with a table, lantern post and campfire ring with grill. Accessible flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided. The picnic area is equipped with tables, grills, an accessible walkway and fish cleaning stations. A lighted parking area and boat ramp are on-site.
Natural Features
The popular campground sits at sea level, alongside the Intracoastal Waterway. It is part of the Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina. The campground itself is grassy and open, with very few trees and limited shade.
Nearby Attractions
Charleston, South Carolina is about 30 miles southwest of the campground.
Charges & Cancellations
Reservation Fees In addition to camping fees a non-refundable reservation fee of $8.00 for telephone bookings and $6.00 for website bookings applies. Cancellation Fees Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee in addition to the non-refundable reservation fee. Late Cancellations A cancellation the day before or on the day of arrival incurs a $10.00 cancellation fee and will also forfeit the first night's use fee (not to exceed the total paid for the original reservation). Cancellations for single night's reservation will forfeit the entire use fee but no cancellation will apply. Non-refundable reservation fees still apply.
What the agency tells you
Additional fees will be collected for extra vehicles when parking area is full
No camping allowed in the overflow parking area.
Camping is limited to 14 days in any 30 day time period and is enforceable under 36 CFR Section 261.58(a).
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Click here for more information on the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
BUCKHALL RECREATION AREA: 1099 Buck Hall Landing Road, McClellanville SC, 29458
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 19 · 5 tent-only
- Hookups
- 14 electric
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 19
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided. The…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Accessible flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided. The picnic area is equipped with…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Beach, Coast
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 4th darkest of 37 in SC
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:15 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 17 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 4 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:15 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$28 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Reservation Fees In addition to camping fees a non-refundable reservation fee of $8.00 for telephone bookings and $6.00 for website bookings applies. Cancellation Fees Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee in addition to the non-refundable reservation fee.” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:15 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
20 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sitesAll 20 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 19 of the 20 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| BUCK HALL | 01 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 73 ft | 1,169 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 02 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 95 ft | 1,185 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 03 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 106 ft | 1,299 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 04 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 73 ft | 1,231 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 05 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 88 ft | 1,407 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 06 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 92 ft | 1,309 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 07 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 88 ft | 1,453 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 08 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 68 ft | 1,492 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 09 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 46 ft | 1,445 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 10 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 46 ft | 1,402 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 11 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 105 ft | 1,300 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 12 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 103 ft | 1,233 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 13 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 103 ft | 1,195 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | 14 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 74 ft | 1,118 ft | $28 |
| BUCK HALL | P | day use | 15 amp | |||||
| BUCK HALL | T1 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 80 ft | 1,140 ft | $20 | ||
| BUCK HALL | T2 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 80 ft | 1,187 ft | $20 | ||
| BUCK HALL | T3 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 81 ft | 1,244 ft | $20 | ||
| BUCK HALL | T4 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 79 ft | 1,303 ft | $20 | ||
| BUCK HALL | T5 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 79 ft | 1,369 ft | $20 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bluff Hike In CampingCongaree National Park · 91 mi
Longleaf CampgroundCongaree National Park · 92 miFrom Charleston, South Carolina, take U.S. Highway 17 north ( 32.0 mi.) to Buck Hall Landing Road (Forest Road 242 /1099). Turn right into the recreation area.
From Georgetown, South Carolina, take U.S. Highway 17 South/South Fraser Street (29.0 mi.) to Buck Hall Landing Road (Forest Road 242 /1099). Turn left into the recreation area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Awendaw, SC
Typical weather
Typical October night 58°F, day 76°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 39°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Buck Hall Recreation Area is in South Carolina’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Nancy Mace (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyNancy MaceU.S. Representative · South Carolina’s 1st district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationDarline GrahamU.S. Senator · South Carolina
No contact form we could verify, so that link is their own site. Contact is inside it. Washington office: 202-224-5972.
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTim ScottU.S. Senator · South Carolina
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Buck Hall Recreation Area, Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina
Dear Nancy Mace, I’m a constituent in South Carolina’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Buck Hall Recreation Area, Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Buck Hall Recreation Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 17 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Buck Hall Recreation Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buck Hall Recreation Area. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Buck Hall Recreation Area (Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Buck Hall Recreation Area, Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina
Dear Darline Graham, I’m a constituent in South Carolina. I tried to camp at Buck Hall Recreation Area, Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Buck Hall Recreation Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 17 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Buck Hall Recreation Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buck Hall Recreation Area. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Buck Hall Recreation Area (Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Buck Hall Recreation Area, Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina
Dear Tim Scott, I’m a constituent in South Carolina. I tried to camp at Buck Hall Recreation Area, Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Buck Hall Recreation Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 17 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Buck Hall Recreation Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buck Hall Recreation Area. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Buck Hall Recreation Area (Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina) via campanac.com