New Lake Murray park opens summer hours. But is it ready for visitor traffic?
South Carolina’s newest state park will offer expanded hours beginning this week, as it moves toward the height of tourist season.
Beginning Thursday, April 2, Pine Island State Park will be open to visitors four days a week, opening from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
The park on the shores of Lake Murray had a soft, off-season opening in October, as the park service hoped to work out any kinks before the expected busier season starts later this summer.
“The peak season is going to be June, heading into July 4, and then it will taper off after that,” said Jayne Baker, spokesperson for the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
Now the park is preparing for an expected influx of visitors as the weather warms up and more people head toward the water. Dominion Energy opened its lakeside park to the public for the season on Wednesday, April 1.
Pine Island was once maintained as a getaway spot for employees of South Carolina Electric & Gas, which owned the lake and its hydropower dam. It was closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the struggling utility — which was absorbed by Dominion Energy in 2019 — offered the island to the state as a potential future park to meet its tax liabilities after the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project.
The park has raised concerns among neighbors ever since plans to turn the 27-acre island into a state park were announced. Pine Island is only accessible by a narrow road running through a residential area near Yacht Cove, north of the Lake Murray dam, and people in the area fear a surge of traffic could leave them blocked into their homes on busy summer weekends.
Before the park opened, the S.C. Legislature included a proviso in the 2025-26 budget that would have required park visitors reserve a parking spot in advance before arriving at the park, similar to the rules adopted last year for Dominion’s Lake Murray Park. But Gov. Henry McMaster vetoed the parking requirement, saying it was premature before the park had even opened.
“There hasn’t been much going on so far. Plus it’s been the winter time, so people are not going to be flocking to it in November,” said Rick Levitan, who lives just across the water from Pine Island. “It’s going to be a nightmare if they don’t have a reservation system.”
Levitan said the park has placed an electronic sign on River Road, the main artery running from North Lake Drive to announce when the park has reached capacity, but he worries drivers coming south from the Ballentine area will exit from Collins Drive and miss the sign altogether.
But Baker said concerns about traffic were not supported by the levels of visitors Pine Island has seen in the months the new park has been operating. The park has only seen 2,750 vehicles since it opened in October, compared to the 161,024 who visited Dreher Island State Park elsewhere on Lake Murray in 2025, or the 672,832 who went to Sesquicentennial State Park northeast of Columbia. Both of those parks were open year-round.
Pine Island Park Manager Tim Ritter said the park currently has 55 parking spaces open on a first-come, first-serve basis, and is working on additional 25 parking spaces. The park has been open to the public three days a week, and the only time rangers have had to briefly close the parking lot was during an organized hike on New Year’s Day, Ritter said.
The park is currently renovating the old clubhouse as a new events center and replacing the marina, which will eventually offer slips for rent to local boat owners. Ritter said staff is also working on specialized programs like birdwatching outings and off-hour sunset viewings.
Admission to Pine Island will be $6 for adults, $3.75 for seniors, $3.50 for children aged 6 to 15, and free for children 5 and under.
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