Saluda River Upstate Blue Trail

The larger vision plan captures a 127-mile Blue Trail along the six Upstate South Carolina counties that border the Saluda River including Abbeville, Anderson, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, and Pickens Counties. This six county collaboration and public/private partnership is a regional joint effort to promote and preserve our local natural resource by creating river access and resource awareness.

To further develop this corridor into an active recreation asset to all users, Anderson County Parks Departments has identified Phase One as 48 miles of the Saluda River in Upstate South Carolina, beginning at the Saluda Lake Dam and ending at the Ware Shoals Dam. Phase One includes fourteen (14) kayak/canoe access points, seven (7) of which would achieve full ADA compliance. The scope also identifies three (3) locations to formally develop boat ramps to accommodate small watercrafts as well as five (5) portage points around the five hydropower facilities. Locations and actions include Saluda Lake Dam (below – ADA kayak access), Dolly Cooper Sports Complex (ADA kayak access), Piedmont Dam (above – ADA kayak access and boat ramp, portage, below – kayak access), Timmerman Jr. Boat Access (ADA kayak access), Pelzer Dam (above – kayak access, portage, below – kayak access), Town of Pelzer Boat Ramp (ADA kayak access), Pelzer Mills Dam (above – kayak access, portage, below – kayak access), Lee Steam Station (portage, below – ADA kayak access and boat ramp), Town of Belton Access (ADA kayak access and boat ramp), and the Holliday Dam (above – kayak access, portage, below – kayak access). This section directly involves Anderson, Greenville, and Pickens Counties with intermediate opportunities for Abbeville County through the tie-in with Laurens and Greenwood County’s 33-mile river access plan which is under construction. The river miles established by the two corridors combined would present an 81-mile Blue Trail along the Saluda River, accounting for two-thirds of the vision plan for Upstate South Carolina.

Current efforts have been focused on a 9-mile section in northern Anderson County. The development plan includes ADA accessibility from top to bottom as well as an emergency preparedness element to improve response time for the local Piedmont Fire Department’s Water Rescue Team. Anderson County was appropriated $260,000 in 2010 from SC Legislative Delegation to begin implementation of 2 formal access locations to establish the corridor. Site selection has been determined for the upper launch and we are currently working with SC DNR to assess the lower ramp and launch point. Another emergency preparedness measure underway for the initial 9-mile corridor comes from the Powdersville Fire Department whose application is pending for grant funds to install mile markers. This wayfinding measure will be fastened to egret birdhouses to benefit and encourage a sustained wildlife.

In July Anderson County secured preliminary approval to pursue individual Memorandums of Understanding’s with each of the hydropower companies and private land owners who occupy the properties surrounding the impoundments. The 48-mile Blue Trail would create historic tour opportunities of seven dams in Upstate South Carolina, including the Lower Pelzer Mills Dam, which is recognized as the oldest dam East of the Mississippi, and potentially the entire United States. At this location, a closed park facility and tailrace exists and could be re-opened to the public under the current corridor development collaboration.

Once Phase One of this corridor is further established, the expansion of the Blue Trail will be focused on the northern section of the Saluda River, which holds more than forty additional miles of river and lake paddling. Current efforts by Save our Saluda, a local non-profit whose mission is to involve active citizen’s groups to protect the Saluda River watershed and its natural resources, to establish the northern portion of the Upstate South Carolina Saluda River Blue Trail will be better supported by the collaborative development of the lower 80 miles.

The establishment of the Saluda River Blue Trail in Upstate South Carolina presents itself as an economic driver that is already prompted one outdoor outfitter, Saluda River Rafting, to open in Pickens County in March of 2011. In a case study of the West Branch of the Farmington River located in Massachusetts, the similar-scoped corridor generates an economic impact of more than $3.3 million annually and directly supports sixty-three (63) jobs related to river recreation.