Crescent
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:13 UTC
- Sites
- 42 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
MUST BE RESERVED A MINIMUM OF TWO DAYS IN ADVANCE OF ARRIVAL DATE. Crescent Group Campground is a 41 acre site located on a narrow peninsula with gentle slopes and a scattered tree cover of pine and mixed hardwoods. The campground is specifically designated for group camping, consisting of two separate reservable loops. The site presently offers 2 park attendant/volunteer host campsites, 10 campsites on Loop A and 22 campsites on Loop B with full water and electric hookups, 2 standard shelters with water and electric service (1 on each loop), 2 comfort stations (1 with showers), 1 dump station, 1 playground, and associated paved and gravel roads and parking areas throughout. No boat ramp or courtesy dock is available at this site. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing is one of the most popular activities at the lake. Sought-after species include largemouth bass, bream, crappie, catfish, striped bass and hybrid bass. The lake appeals to boaters of all kinds, whether their specialty is canoeing, sailing or motor boating. Coves and areas of quiet water provide water skiers with excellent surfaces. Swimmers will find sand beaches and designated swim areas along the shoreline.
Facilities
The site presently offers 10 campsites on Loop A and 22 campsites on Loop B with full water and electric hookups, 2 standard shelters with water and electric service (1 on each loop), 2 comfort stations (1 with showers), 1 dump station, 1 playground, and associated paved and gravel roads and parking areas throughout. No boat ramp or courtesy dock is available at this site.
Natural Features
Hartwell Lake is a man-made lake bordering Georgia and South Carolina on the Savannah, Tugaloo and Seneca Rivers. The dam and lake area boasts 8 campgrounds and 11 day-use facilities that are operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Hartwell Project was originally authorized for hydro-power, flood control, and navigation. Later, recreation, water quality, water supply and fish and wildlife management were added. Surrounding vegetation allows for plenty of shade, and the 962 miles of shoreline provide numerous swimming beaches, picnic areas and boat ramps.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is a short drive away from Clemson, South Carolina and Clemson University, offering additional tourism opportunities, along with grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants. Charges & Cancellations - Once your reservation has been created, there will be a $10.00 fee to cancel and a $10.00 fee to change your site or dates. - Cancellations made the day before, or up to the day after your arrival date will also be charged the first night use fee. - Reserved campsites will be held until check out time ( 2 p.m.) on the day following your scheduled arrival date. If you do not arrive at campground by 2 p.m. to fulfill your reservation, your reservation will be cancelled and you will be assessed a $20 service fee and forfeit the first night use fee. - If your reservation is for one night and you have been charged the first nights use fee, there is no $10 service fee. Refunds: - To insure fairness for all Recreation.gov customers, any reservation with departure dates outside the 6 or 12 month maximum window cannot be changed or cancelled until 18 days after the reservation is made. - Refunds must be requested no later than 14 days after scheduled departure date. Refunds may be requested through NNRS Customer Service at 888-448-1474. Refunds for bank card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank card. Cash and check purchases will be refunded by check and may take up to 8 weekds for approval and processing.
What the agency tells you
Reservations Required! This is a group campground; sites are reserved by the loop.
Loop A is for Sites 1-10; maximum number of people is 100; maximum number of vehicles is 30.
Loop B is for Sites 1-22; maximum number of people is 220; maximum number of vehicles is 66.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
One wheeled camping unit (RV, Camper, Camper van/truck, etc) per single site and must be parked on impact pad. Tents are restricted to impact pad.
Entrance gate must be kept closed and locked at all times. You will be provided the gate combination before your arrival date. You must inform all campers of gate policy.
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
All pets must be penned, caged or on a leash no longer than 6 feet; pets are prohibited on swim beaches, playgrounds, and in restrooms. You MUST clean up after your pet!
Gray water (any wastewater from sinks, dishwashing, bathing, etc) or other waste water must be disposed of properly at campground dump station.
Keep your campsite and campground clean. Keep your trash contained and frequently remove trash from campsite (dumpsters located within campground). Do not leave litter in fire ring or on campsite upon check out.
Check IN is 3 p.m.. Check OUT is 2 p.m. Area including campsites, shoreline, and around all common areas must be free of any trash and litter before departure. Dumpsters are located within campground.
All vehicles must be parked on gravel area of campsite or in designated parking spaces. Only licensed drivers may operate motor vehicles. Golf carts, ATV's, and motorized scooters are prohibited.
Inflatables including water slides, jumping houses, etc. and/or carnival type rides/events are not permitted.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4 · 4 group
- Hookups
- 4 electric, 2 water
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 2 of 3 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- SHOWERS on 2 of 3 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 3 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Water access
- Night sky · 22nd darkest of 37 in SC
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:13 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:18 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 2 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:13 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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
“- Once your reservation has been created, there will be a $10.00 fee to cancel and a $10.00 fee to change your site or dates. - Cancellations made the day before, or up to the day after your arrival date will also be charged the first night use fee. - Reserved campsites will be held until check out time ( 2 p.m.) on…” · 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:18 UTC
- WatsadlerHartwell Lake · 2.9 mi · 1 of 96 site-nights open
- SpringfieldHartwell Lake · 4.5 mi · 2 of 148 site-nights open
- Oconee PointHartwell Lake · 16 mi · 3 of 132 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:13 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
4 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 4 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 3 of the 4 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 4 of the 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | LOOP A Sites 1-10 | group standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 716 ft | 68 ft | 624 ft | $240 |
| B | LOOP B Sites 1-22 | group standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | Flush Toilets listed | $240 | ||
| CRESCENT | LOOP A Sites 1-10 | group standard electric | 716 ft | 60 ft | 242 ft | $240 | ||
| CRESCENT | LOOP B Sites 1-22 | group standard electric | 1213 ft | 63 ft | 1,454 ft | $240 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Elrod Ferry2.6 mi
Watsadler2.9 mi
Big Oaks3.0 mi
Springfield4.5 mi
Singing Pines7.4 miMilltown Campground9.1 miFrom Hartwell, Georgia, take Hwy 29 north for approximately 8 miles (you will cross into South Carolina). Turn left onto Ginn Road. Take the first left onto Campers Way and continue straight to the campground. From Anderson SC, take Hwy 29 South from Anderson, heading south towards Hartwell, Georgia, after the intersection with Hwy 187 (4-way stop), continue south on Hwy 29 until you see sign for Crescent. It is located about 4 miles before the Ga/SC border. 150 Campers Way Starr, SC 29684
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Reed Creek, GA
Typical weather
Typical October night 52°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 33°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Crescent is in South Carolina’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Sheri Biggs (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 moneySheri BiggsU.S. Representative · South Carolina’s 3rd 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 Crescent, South Carolina
Dear Sheri Biggs, I’m a constituent in South Carolina’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Crescent, South Carolina, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 2 of the 4 campsites the agency files at Crescent, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Crescent keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crescent. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Crescent (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 Crescent, South Carolina
Dear Darline Graham, I’m a constituent in South Carolina. I tried to camp at Crescent, South Carolina, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 2 of the 4 campsites the agency files at Crescent, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Crescent keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crescent. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Crescent (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 Crescent, South Carolina
Dear Tim Scott, I’m a constituent in South Carolina. I tried to camp at Crescent, South Carolina, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 2 of the 4 campsites the agency files at Crescent, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Crescent keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crescent. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Crescent (South Carolina) via campanac.com