There's a potential painting everywhere you look '12

  There are numerous lakes in  upstate South Carolina. We tried to visit as many of them as possible today.  Keowee-Toxaway State Park was first on our itinerary.

 

Golf courses, private resorts, and pricey private developments are on the west side.

The extensive shoreline is very beautiful, but you need a boat to see it.

Lacking a watercraft, we had to settle for hiking the Natural Bridge Trail to this lovely little waterfall.

 Road to Oconee SP

The next stop was OconeeState Park.

Oconee SP serves as a jumping off point to the nearby Chattooga and Chauga rivers, hotspots for whitewater rafting and trout fishing.  It is a smaller man-made lake, and unfortunately the water level extremely low when we visited, so the only reference photos I collected were of the local  fall color.

On the road from Oconee SP we stopped at Issaqueena Falls County Park, which boasts  a beautiful 200-ft. cascade. Legend has it that the Indian maiden, Issaqueena, rode to the nearby fort to warn of a pending Indian attack and then escaped pursuing Indians by pretending to leap over the falls, but actually hiding beneath them. This easy hike will take you to the top of the falls, but a short path to the right will give you a grand view of the entire scene.  I am told that the falls are much wider in the spring, but you can't go wrong visiting this place any time of year.

Our next  stop was the Devils Fork State Park.  The land around 7,500-acre Lake Jocassee remains mostly undeveloped and the only public access point to the lake is through Devils Fork. Four mountain streams and several waterfalls feed into the lake, making it cooler than others and a great South Carolina trout fishing spot.  Boats rentals are available, and hiking trails lead around the lakefront.  Even in the flat light of midday, the scenery  along the shore was spectacular.  I captured the reference photo above from the edge of a campsite in the park.

And this is just a sampling of the what we saw.
I got a ton of state park photos today. They'll make great reference photos for new additions to my paintings of the SC State Park Series.