The Savannah Valley Railroad Trail will one day follow the Savannah River on a northwest course from McCormick to Calhoun Falls. It will cross two counties (McCormick and Abbeville) and link three state parks: Baker Creek, Calhoun Falls, and Hickory Knob.
Currently, 9 miles of the trail are open for public use in McCormick County. Along your journey, you will see several streams and the Badwell Cemetery, a burial place for settlers dating back to the 1700s.
The trail’s first 2.2 miles, from Barksdale Ferry Road to Cemetery Road, traverse dense woodlands along a grass rail bed. (If biking, be sure your tires are puncture resistant.) The middle section starts out as an on-road route, but then becomes another grass rail bed. The trail ends at the wooden trestle over Mill Creek, which can now be crossed and incorporates a nice picnic area with table seating overlooking Mill Creek. The rail bed picks up on the other side and goes to Willington.
In McCormick, there is a parking lot on Barksdale Ferry Road and also at the Badwell Cemetery Road entrance.
Parked by McCormick country club end. Road about .4 miles on the trail, until came to very large trees down from Hurricane Helene. Possibly could have lifted bikes through but wasn’t sure how many more were down. Many had been cut so I’m sure they will eventually be cut. Turned back and drove to SC7 parking. About 3 spaces there, road about 2 miles, roots, leaves, and pine straw covered, definitely need a mountain bike, beautiful trip in the woods. There is a small detour onto moss rd for about .5 miles, which is a country road not busy. Didn’t go all the way to Willington. Very nice day!
Wanted to provide a more recent review. Rode most of the trail yesterday with my wife. It is well marked, well maintained and beautiful ride. The path is hard pack - not concrete or black top so it is not super smooth. There are several things to see and placards to read that explain the features of the old railroad. Also a cemetery from the 1700s and a fun tressel towards the end. The only negatives were that my wife thought there were too many roots. There are roots and I rode a mountain bike so I didn’t really notice them as ‘bad”. Also there is about a 2.5 mile section you have to ride on the road in the middle. It is a country road and traffic was lite and the cars were respectful of us and rode slowly around us. There were benches and picnic tables along the route if you wanted to stop and just sit for a while. We only saw 2 other people walking their dogs. It was a fun trail for novice riders not looking for single track. Enjoy -
Parts of it were very pretty, and overall pretty well maintained (but with a fair amount of roots in some areas). But about 1/3 of the 9 miles were on roads with no shoulder. Not busy roads, but not what we expected of a “rail trail”. Also a lot of spiderwebs on the trail.
Great trail. Listed as closed, figured that we would just be out the drive if it was closed. Could never figure out why it is listed that way. It is beautiful and well maintained.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails conservancy
(a non-profit) and we need your support!