Aiken

Aiken State Park is a 1,067-acre natural area located along the South Fork of the Edisto River in Aiken County, South Carolina. The park showcases a remarkable combination of river swamp, bottomland hardwood forest, and dry sandhill pine forest, the latter providing geological evidence of an era when the Atlantic Ocean reached this far inland. The South Fork Edisto River, part of the longest free-flowing blackwater stream in North America, meanders through the park and serves as its centerpiece. Three artesian wells scattered throughout the property provide naturally flowing water from underground aquifers. Built during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps, Aiken State Park preserves a significant stretch of Coastal Plain ecology while offering visitors opportunities for canoeing, fishing, hiking, and nature study in a landscape shaped by millions of years of geological and hydrological processes.