Peters Creek Heritage Preserve
Contact Information
SC Department of Natural Resources311 Natural Resources Drive
Clemson, SC 29631
Mary Bunch, Preserve Manager
(864) 654-6738 ext. 15
Tom Swayngham, Region 1 Coordinator
(864) 654-1671 ext. 21
Hours of Operation
The area is open during daylight hours year-round.
Contributions to the Endangered Wildlife Fund on the South Carolina Income Tax Form help to make the identification and management of these preserves possible.
Photographs
Description
Peters Creek Heritage Preserve receives help from Kudzu Coalition
Peters Creek Heritage Preserve covers 156 acres in Spartanburg County. This piedmont cove forest, with its rolling topography, an old mill dam, two creeks, and walking trails, is a pleasant and peaceful place to visit.
The Preserve includes hardwood bluffs and slopes along Peters Creek, Mineral Springs, and an unnamed stream. These hardwoods provide stream and bluff-side conditions suitable for the second largest known population of dwarf heartleaf, Hexastylis naniflora, a threatened species. Songbirds and wildlife make their home in these hardwood forests, the pine woodlands, and scrub land.
Volunteers have constructed almost four miles of trails throughout the preserve. Volunteers help maintain the trails and improvements. Visitors seeking a quick outdoor experience can hike a short twenty-minute loop trail from the parking area through a hardwood forest. More ambitious trekkers can see all of the preserve. The longer trip requires a couple of stream crossings – might get your feet wet – and can take about two or three hours. A 300-year flood caused by a tropical storm washed two large footbridges away. Efforts are underway to replace those bridges.
In May, the dense clusters of pink flowers on mountain laurel reflect spectacularly on Peters Creek. A dam on Peters Creek at the end of one trail is over 100 years old. It is very nice to look at, but – STAY OFF! An extensive wetlands mitigation project to remove fish barriers, has routed the stream around the dam so there is no longer a pond above the dam except during heavy rains.
Motorized vehicles, hunting, camping and fires are prohibited.