Cheraw State Park: Second Park Visit Report

Once again, Rebecca and I decided to accompany each other during our State Park adventures. However, when we went to Cheraw, there was another tagalong--Vincent, my dog! As always, he was super excited to get out of the house and meet everyone along the way. As for time and weather, it was Saturday the 25th. It was raining most all day, but we looked at the radar and we were able to plan our visit for right in between two rainstorms; from 11:30am to 1pm. 

As for the version of nature that we experienced... I would say It would a quite an edited way of viewing nature, to say the least. This version of "nature" that Rebecca and I got to see was pleasant. However, it was not realistic whatsoever. There were picnic tables added, a visitors' center, and a playground--even the entire lake, which seems to be the highlight of the park, is man-made. This reminded me somewhat of the Mather Mountain Party. I say this because while he did show his higher-class friends nature, he did so in a very, well, high-class way. Stephen Mather brought nice food and china, even tablecloths! This story and Cheraw State Park both have that little bit of artifice hiding the true experience. However, when you think about it, so do most parks. No park is truly just "left alone" so you can "enjoy nature" in its truest form. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just suggesting it as something to think about.

 

The purpose/audience of this park was pretty obvious to me right off the bat. So when Rebecca and I got to the park, we actually pulled up to a little reservation venue that was about to have an event. We didn't catch what kind, but we saw all kinds of people there. We obviously left and drove further down past the golf courses, and arrived at the visitors' center. This is where the abundance of picnic tables, along with the playground, boardwalk, and a few cabins showed how family-oriented this park really is. Each part I just mentioned could be used for a family--in fact, who else would really use a playground other than children in a family?

Cheraw State Park seems to really lean toward the building
of structures and other amenities to protect the other land from getting damaged. While I see the structures (like the

picnic tables/open areas where they are) as helpful for the enjoyment aspect, it doesn't help the preservation for the future a lot. The only thing I could argue is like I just said--it's keeping people off the other more important land. But even then, that is a pretty weak argument. There was some signage that Rebecca and I spotted. For Example, this "Grow, Don't Mow" sign says that they are lessening the mowing in the surrounding areas. There were also signs showing not to swim at certain points and no dogs on the beach. While these signs are helpful, I feel like there could be more. I did not notice very many while I was there. However, that raises the paradox of them having too many signs to properly enjoy the park. That is why I would suggest making the signs more artistic or aesthetically pleasing, like the one pictured here. Also, you could include a little bit more context to the information on the sign, leading to (possibly) fewer signs in total anyways. 

As for how accessible this park is, I would say that Cheraw State park is pretty accessible. There were multiple handicap signs, along with handicap parking. This led me to believe that you could get around well. Also, once Rebecca and I started looking, We found the ramp way down to the visitors center as well. It was in a pretty obvious spot; however, I am simply not used to looking for those things. 

Last but not least, 3 defining photos of the park. Rebecca and I did talk about this while at the park, so we do have the same photos I do believe. (I hope that is okay; I am not doing the actual analysis with her.)

These are the three most important photos in the park that we took. I say this because the first (top) photo shows the golf course (apologies for the bad image, we did not see a good place to get out of our car). I see the golf course as a very important aspect of the park because it seemed like there was a lot of tourism from that section. The next two photos are kind of a two-in-one: the left bottom photo shows both the visitors' center and the playground, while the right bottom photo shows the lake and picnic areas. There is also a bonus family and goose accidentally included in that last photo! I didn't want to leave any of these parts of the park out, because I feel like they are what make up the core of the park. If it was three photos about my experience, they most certainly would have been different... however, this is a good overview for the entirety.