Old Towne Creek County Park Opens an Hour Before Charles Towne Landing. That Hour Shapes How You Use Both.
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
Drive down Old Towne Road and the two parks look like one long stretch of woods. One gate is at 1400 Old Towne Road and the other at 1500. Behind them, a single creek splits the land into two parks with different owners, fees, rules and histories. The Post and Courier put it simply: the parks are separate, "with different admission prices, operating hours and other rules."
Old Towne Creek County Park has been open since June 30, 2026, so the first fall is a good time to compare the two. Put their histories, gate times and calendars side by side and the split looks deliberate. On the county side, a quiet early walk passes through 20th-century West Ashley history. Across the creek, Charles Towne Landing takes visitors back to the 1670s, and its scheduled programs make it a place for a planned outing.
Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site mainly tells the story of the first Carolina settlement, from 1670 to 1680. After that the colonists moved their main town across the Ashley to the peninsula.
The land south of the creek was part of the same early property history. The Post and Courier editorial says it holds far fewer colonial archaeological deposits, though. What still stands there comes mostly from later decades, when the land served as a rural retreat, a truck farm and then a horse riding center.
Charleston County Parks' fact sheet lays out the timeline:
The purchase used $5.1 million in Charleston County Greenbelt money. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2026 for its landscape setting and for the architecture of its Main House and Caretaker's House.
The county chose that later focus on purpose. "A lot of our interpretation covers West Ashley history," park commission senior planner Matt Moldenhauer told the Post and Courier. The signs cover truck farming, the St. Andrews Riding Academy, Maryville and Ashleyville. They also tell how St. Andrews Parish grew from farmland into the West Ashley of today.
You can see that history in the buildings. The Welcome Center and its small gift shop are inside the old "Rain Hut," where riding-academy students once took cover from the weather. Many of the flowering plants along the paths were planted by Emily Simmons Ravenel and her daughter, both serious gardeners.
The history split matches a split in the daily schedule, and the schedule is what most visitors will notice first.
| Old Towne Creek County Park | Charles Towne Landing | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 1400 Old Towne Rd | 1500 Old Towne Rd |
| Run by | Charleston County Parks | South Carolina State Parks |
| Grounds open, Nov.–Dec. | 8 a.m. to sunset | 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Adult admission | $2 | $12 |
| Youth admission | $2; free for age 2 and under | $7 for ages 6–15; free for 5 and under |
| Senior admission | $2 | $7.50 for S.C. seniors |
| Pass that covers entry | Charleston County Parks Gold Pass | $99 All Park Passport, good for everyone in the vehicle for one year |
The county gate opens an hour before the state grounds do. At Old Towne Creek, the gate stops letting cars in 30 minutes before the park closes. At Charles Towne Landing, the Visitor Center closes at 4 p.m., an hour before the grounds, and the Animal Forest is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
As November days get shorter, the two parks close at similar times. Most of the difference is at the start of the day.
The fees separate them further. Two adults and two children between 6 and 15 pay $8 at Old Towne Creek and $38 at Charles Towne Landing. At $2 a person, the county park works as a regular weekday walk: the one-mile packed-stone Ashem Loop Trail plus about another half mile of trails. At those prices, Charles Towne Landing is more of a planned outing. Families who visit state parks often may find the All Park Passport changes that math.
The rules also point each park toward a different kind of visit.
Old Towne Creek is set up for walking and looking. It has boardwalks and a dock with views of the creek and marsh. The dock is for looking only, though. Fishing, swimming, wading and personal canoes or kayaks are not allowed. Leashed dogs are welcome, and owners must clean up after them and keep them under control. The rest of the park keeps to the same slow pace:
Charles Towne Landing allows more active visits. Bikes are allowed on park paths everywhere except the Animal Forest trail, and rentals cost $8 a person per hour or $20 a day. Dogs can go in most outdoor areas on a leash no longer than six feet. Pets and service animals are not allowed in the Animal Forest.
Weekday visits to the Animal Forest look different right now. According to the park's current advisory, about half of it is closed Monday through Friday during construction, starting at the puma and bear exhibits. The red wolf, otter, skunk and gopher tortoise exhibits stay open on weekdays, and the whole forest runs as usual on weekends. For a family visit built around the animals, Saturday and Sunday are the days to go.
The programs line up with the split too. Old Towne Creek's events start early and stay small. Charles Towne Landing schedules hands-on history in the late morning and afternoon. Here's what's coming in November and December, plus Old Towne Creek's first listed program of 2027:
On Dec. 5 you can visit both parks in one day. Start with the 7 a.m. birding walk on the county side. Early Birding wraps up at 9, so there's time for lunch somewhere before Great Guns on the Ashley starts across the creek at 1 p.m.
The fall evening series is done for the year. Wine Down Wednesday came back to Old Towne Creek on Aug. 26, with more dates on Sept. 9 and Sept. 23. Tickets were $20 in advance or $25 at the door and included wine, live music and food trucks. The Aug. 26 date sold out. Charleston County Parks has said the park will offer events and programs year-round.
The Post and Courier reported that the county once looked at building a boardwalk over the creek to link the two parks' entrance roads. It was judged impractical. Instead, the state and Charleston County built a wide bike and pedestrian path along Old Towne Road between the parks.
That path is how you get between the two halves of the creek. Admission is paid separately at each gate. On the county side, cars come in through a new entrance with a turn lane on Old Towne Road. From the parking areas, a paved, accessible route leads to the Welcome Center.
The editorial points out that this stretch of Old Towne Road is changing on its own, with the Ashley Landing redevelopment and Charleston's major new office building across the street. Behind the gates, the two parks are now open to the public on both banks of the creek.
Roslyn Kay knows West Ashley one street at a time, from a $2 morning walk at the Rain Hut to the Saturday crowd at the Animal Forest. If you're thinking about what a home near Old Towne Road is worth as this corridor changes, Roslyn Kay Parker can walk you through it. Request a Free Home Valuation.
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