This is one of the newest additions to the DNR’s growing list of state heritage preserves.

In 2015, the SC Department of Natural Resources acquired 3,674 acres along the Wateree River from Haile Gold Mine in Lancaster County.

It was part of mitigation for the mining. The state established it as a heri

The state established it as a heritage preserve with its primary focus being hunting and wildlife management.

Archery, turkey, deer and waterfowl hunts take place throughout the year.

Don’t worry, there’s hiking to be done there, too.

My friend David Gabrielli showed me what Wateree Heritage Preserve had to offer. We made plans to meet on a sunny April afternoon.

THE ENTRANCE IS directly off Garners Ferry Road. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve zoomed past, not knowing the preserve even existed.

I drove down the gravel road through the floodplain, crossed Colonels Creek and made it to a sign-in board.

David rolled up next to me and I hopped in his car for a tour.

He first took me down Milomore Road to a dead end. We hopped out, planning to follow the road to the river. The old washed-out road cut through the hardwood filled floodplains.

Eventually, the woods gave way to a wider corridor with a meadow on either side of the road. Flowers and grass covered the ground. It looked like a sewer line corridor but it wasn’t.

TRAIL SIGNS LED us to the river where it was remarkably quiet. The hum of cars crossing the Wateree on Garners Ferry Road could be heard but not the buzzing of boats racing up the river with the public ramps closed.

Soon we reached 2 dove fields on Colonels Creek. David scouted the fields for a possible spot in the lottery hunt.

The trail left the old roadbed and meandered its way into the woods. We ended up in a flooded area right by Colonels Creek with no bridge in sight. After some debating, we decided to try to jump it.

That didn’t work and we ended up with wet feet. Somehow we ended up on a different spur road, but we hiked out onto the main road and made it back to the car.

That loop was an easy 4-miles around the floodplains of the preserve, now it was time to make it into the hills.

AS WE DROVE deeper into the preserve’s 3,674 acres, floodplains turned into rolling hills. Our next stop was the highlight of the park, the Cooks Mountain overlook. Standing 372 above sea level and 250 feet above the Wateree River, the overlook provides views over the Wateree Swamp allowing you to see for miles.

You can see the high hills of Sumter County on the horizon.

A picnic shelter sits on top of the mountain.

We drove to the fish pond for one last late afternoon hike. The pond sat next to a powerline clearing, making an open field. We hiked onto the dam as the sky was starting to turn late afternoon orange.

On the far side of the dam, the trail entered a pine forest. We hiked just under a mile loop around the lake and by then it was time to go.

WHILE THE MAIN focus of the Heritage Preserve is hunting, there is plenty for hikers, bikers, bird-watchers and even equestrians to see and do.

Within the next few years, a new Palmetto Trail section will pass through the preserve, connecting the existing Fort Jackson and Wateree Passages.

The preserve is very diverse ranging from floodplain to rolling hills and dense hardwood forests to open control-burned longleaf pine forests.

The panoramic view from Cooks Mountain alone makes it worth the trip.