West Dam
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
West Dam Recreation Area is one of the most popular parks on J. Strom Thurmond Lake. With 70,000 acres of surface-area and 1,000+ miles of shoreline, J. Strom Thurmond Lake provides excellent boating, water skiing, swimming, fishing, hiking and picnicking opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
Thurmond Lake provides some of the best fishing, hunting, and water sports in the southeastern US. Anglers fish for largemouth bass, bream, crappie, catfish and striped bass. The large lake offers endless boating, water skiing, jet skiing, canoeing and swimming opportunities. Hikers have access to many miles of trails in the area. The 1.8-mile Lake Springs Loop and the 27-mile Bartram Trail, which meanders along the scenic shoreline and through Wildwood Park, are nearby. Shorter sections can be hiked from several intersecting trailheads.
Facilities
West Dam Recreation Area is a wooded day-use area with several mini picnic shelters accommodating up to six people each. One large shelter for up to 68 people is available as well. Amenities include flush toilets, drinking water, a playground, beach and hiking trail.
Natural Features
Hot, humid summers and mild, pleasant winters characterize this heavily wooded area on the shore of Thurmond Lake. A mixed pine and hardwood forest covers the site, providing summer shade and fall color. Elevation is 335' above sea level. Wildlife is abundant around the lake. Visitors regularly see southern bald eagles, migratory waterfowl, wild turkeys and whitetail deer.
Nearby Attractions
Numerous parks and recreation areas lie around Thurmond Lake, providing additional boating, swimming, hunting and hiking opportunities. Nearby cities house museums, art galleries, zoos, restaurants and shopping areas. The Augusta National Golf Club hosts the Masters Golf Tournament annually the first week of April.
What the agency tells you
Park hours are 8 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
All users must pay the $7 entry fee by the credit card machine prior to the gatehouse. Pass must be displayed with the time and date visable during your visit. Acceptable passes are the USACE Annual Pass and the America the Beautiful – the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes.
Pets permitted on leash
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited
Glass and pets are prohibited on designated swimming beaches
Fires are prohibited
Nets, volleyballs and horseshoes are not provided
For shelter reservations: Please bring your confirmation letter to the park; it is required for check-in Shelter must be occupied by 2pm Users are not exempt from entrance fee The beach area and other park amenities are available for the reserving group as well as to the general public
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…is available as well. Amenities include flush toilets, drinking water, a playground, beach and hiking…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…well. Amenities include flush toilets, drinking water, a playground, beach and hiking trail. Natural…”
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Swimming
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 11 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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
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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
11 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 11 mapped sitesAll 11 records
| WDAM | 01 | day use | 69 ft | 143 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | 02 | day use | 69 ft | 103 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | 03 | day use | 70 ft | 59 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | 04 | day use | 59 ft | 58 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | 05 | day use | 59 ft | 51 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | 06 | day use | 68 ft | 49 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | 07 | day use | 68 ft | 48 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | 08 | day use | 85 ft | 46 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | 09 | day use | 97 ft | 55 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | 10 | day use | 121 ft | 23 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $10 | |
| WDAM | Group Shelter | day use | 20 amp | 854 ft | 81 ftJ. Strom Thurmond Reservoir | $125 |
The agency files 11 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is 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
Below Dam South Carolina0.6 mi
Clarks Hill1.0 mi
Lake Springs1.7 mi
Petersburg3.5 mi
Ridge Road3.6 mi
Modoc4.3 miFrom Clarks Hill, SC, west on US 221, go across Thurmond Dam; area is on the Georgia side of the dam.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Clarks Hill, SC
Typical weather
Typical October night 58°F, day 78°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 40°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
West Dam 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
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject West Dam has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Sheri Biggs, I’m a constituent in South Carolina’s 3rd district. West Dam, South Carolina carries 11 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about West Dam (South Carolina) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject West Dam has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Darline Graham, I’m a constituent in South Carolina. West Dam, South Carolina carries 11 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about West Dam (South Carolina) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject West Dam has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Tim Scott, I’m a constituent in South Carolina. West Dam, South Carolina carries 11 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about West Dam (South Carolina) via campanac.com