Fairfield County · South Carolina
Things to do
Everything below is within about an hour of the gate. Plenty of guests never leave the peninsula, which is also a legitimate plan.
Jenkinsville is small. There is no strip of restaurants and no queue for anything, which is most of the appeal. What’s around instead is water, trail, a couple of old towns, and Columbia close enough to make a zoo trip easy.
Drive times are approximate, measured from the property
On the water
Lake Monticello & the Broad River
On site
SC license required
Fishing straight off the dock
Lake Monticello holds largemouth and smallmouth bass, crappie, striped bass and several kinds of catfish. It’s one of the few lakes in the state that consistently produces decent smallmouth, which is why it hosts tournaments. Because water is pumped in and out of the Broad River, the lower end of the lake runs warmer than it should in cold weather, and winter fishing here is genuinely good.
Our dock
On site
Kayaks included
Kayaking from the beach
The kayaks are shared between both domes and launch straight off the sand. With no jet skis or ski boats allowed anywhere on the lake, the water stays flat enough that paddling out past the point is easy going.
The two kayaks
2.1 miles
Free · Jenkinsville
Lake Monticello Park
A public park on the far side of the lake at 75 Baltic Circle, with a big wooden fishing pier, a mile of paved walking loop, a playground, picnic tables over the water, and basketball, tennis and softball. Swimming is allowed and there’s no lifeguard. Open 10am to 8pm at weekends, April through September.
1.9 miles
Public ramp
The boat ramp
The nearest ramp onto Lake Monticello, a couple of minutes up the road. Bring a boat and you have 6,700 acres more or less to yourself, since no jet skis or motorized water sports are allowed anywhere on the lake.
25 minutes
Bring your own boat
Paddling the Broad River from Alston
There’s a canoe launch at the Alston trailhead. Put in there and you get a long, secluded stretch of river with almost nothing built along it. Give it a full day rather than an afternoon.
45 minutes
State park fee
Lake Wateree State Park
Nearly 13,000 acres of lake, with a boat ramp, camping with hookups, a large playground and a loop hiking trail. Worth the drive if you want a bigger lake and a proper ramp.
On land
Trail, dirt and dark sky
20 minutes
Winnsboro
Carolina Adventure World
2,600 acres outside Winnsboro with more than 100 miles of trail for ATVs, UTVs and dirt bikes. It’s the largest riding park in the Southeast. Bring your own machine or hire one there.
25 minutes
Hike or bike · free
The Broad River trestle, Palmetto Trail
The Peak to Prosperity Passage runs west from the Alston trailhead and crosses the Broad River on an 1,100-foot railway trestle. It’s the best view in the county and bald eagles work the water underneath it. From there it’s 6.5 miles on to Pomaria. The trailhead itself has picnic tables and a primitive campsite.
A bridge on the Palmetto Trail · Dallas Epperson · CC BY-SA 3.0
1 hour
National park · free entry
Congaree National Park
Old-growth floodplain forest with a boardwalk through it, southeast of Columbia. It also holds some of the darkest skies on the East Coast and runs a dark-sky program with astronomers from the University of South Carolina. Check their calendar before you come.
Congaree boardwalk · Runner1928 · CC BY-SA 3.0
You don’t have to drive an hour for a dark sky. There’s very little light on this peninsula, and there’s a telescope in the Big Dipper’s living room for exactly that reason.
Towns and history
Winnsboro & around
20 minutes
Walkable
Downtown Winnsboro
The Town Clock has been running since 1833 and is the oldest continuously running clock in the country. Across from it is the Fairfield County Courthouse, built in 1823 by Robert Mills, the architect who later designed the Washington Monument. There’s also the Cornwallis House, a WPA mural inside the post office, and the Fairfield County Museum. It all fits into a morning on foot.
The Town Clock · Evanoco · CC BY 4.0
25 minutes
Check ride dates
South Carolina Railroad Museum
Running since 1973, with cabooses, freight cars and diesel engines, and train rides on scheduled days. Straightforwardly good with kids.
The line by the museum · Mikeiamunion21 · CC BY-SA 3.0
20 minutes
Annual · fall
Rock Around the Clock Festival
Winnsboro’s street festival, held around the Town Clock in September or October. Bands, a parade, a street dance, classic cars, a 5K and train rides. If your dates land near it, go.
35 minutes south
Columbia, when you want a city day.
Close enough to go in for the afternoon and be back on the deck for sunset. The zoo is the obvious one and it earns it.
40 minutes
Riverbanks Zoo & Garden
170 acres on the Saluda River with more than 3,000 animals, an aquarium and a botanical garden across the water. Budget most of a day.
Thomson200 · CC0
35 minutes
Downtown Columbia
The state capital, the university, and the closest concentration of restaurants, supermarkets and anything you forgot to pack.
Farragutful · CC BY-SA 4.0
Congaree National Park is another eighteen miles past Columbia, so the two make a sensible day together.
Practical
Before you turn off the highway
There is no shop on the peninsula and the nearest full supermarket is a drive. Stock up in Winnsboro or on the way through Columbia, and bring firewood if you want the stove going.
Mobile signal is workable but not fast. If you need to be reachable, say so when you book and we’ll tell you which corner of the deck to stand in.
Photo credits
Pictures of places we don’t own
Photographs of the peninsula are ours. The rest come from Wikimedia Commons under licenses that permit commercial use.
- Palmetto Trail bridge — Dallas Epperson, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Congaree boardwalk — Runner1928, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Winnsboro Town Clock — Evanoco, CC BY 4.0
- Track near the South Carolina Railroad Museum — Mikeiamunion21, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Riverbanks Zoo bog garden — Thomson200, CC0
- South Carolina State House — Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0
Why the lake is like this
A lake built to cool a power station.
Lake Monticello was dug in the late 1970s as cooling water for the station next door, which is why it is shaped the way it is and why the utility still owns every one of its 54 shoreline miles. It has never been sold off, so there is no ring of docks, no restaurants and no marina strip.
Anglers know it for a different reason. It is one of the few lakes in South Carolina that reliably turns up smallmouth bass, and because water is pumped back and forth with the Broad River, the lower end stays warmer through the winter than it should. People fish it in January and do well.
The same pumps move the level by a foot or two during the day, so the waterline shifts. It will not bother you on the dock; it is worth knowing before you tie a boat up short.
Thirty minutes away
Make it two lakes.
We also look after a lakehouse on Lake Murray, at Chapin, half an hour down the road. Lake Murray is the opposite kind of water: busy, boats everywhere, plenty going on around the shore. Some families book both and get the quiet end and the lively end in one trip.