
Hwy. 130/Oconee County
Oconee,
Bad Creek Visitors Center
The Bad Creek site provides a trailhead for the 80-mile long Foothills Trail. Duke Energy provides a parking area, with public phone and portajons, and a half-mile spur trail takes the hiker to the Foothills Trail. This spur will also take the visitor to a one-mile long (non-loop) trail through the Coon Branch Natural Area. This unique place features stands of old-growth timber and showy springtime wildflower displays. Anglers can park in the trailhead parking lot for the Foothills Trail and follow the half-mile spur trail to the Whitewater River, one of South Carolina's finest wild trout streams. A spur off the Foothills Trail takes the visitor to the Lower Whitewater Falls overlook platform. This is one of South Carolina's largest and most scenic water-surrounding mountains of the Jocassee Gorges area (open in daytime only).