Phase 1 of the Saluda Shoals Riverwalk opened to the public at noon on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. It's 2.5 miles of paved trail and boardwalk on the north bank of the Lower Saluda River, running from Dreher Shoals Dam to Saluda Shoals Park. The trail's first summer is over, and fall is when two schedules start to shape every visit. The gate at Dreher Shoals Landing sets when you can park. Dominion Energy's hydro operations set what the river beside the path is doing. A good fall walk fits inside both.
Where the Trail Actually Starts
The trailhead is at Dreher Shoals Landing, 6181 Bush River Road. It has a new building with a park office, restrooms and paved parking. The Post and Courier placed the start across the street from the Johnny W. Jeffcoat Walkway at the Lake Murray Dam. Both routes share a starting area, but the Riverwalk is a separate path that follows the river down toward the park.
The path is 10 feet wide, paved and ADA accessible, with elevated boardwalk sections through the woods. Pets are allowed. Once it reaches Saluda Shoals Park, it links to about three more miles of trail inside the park. Walking from the landing to the park and back is about five miles before you set foot on the park loops. For a family on bikes or a runner building weekend mileage, that's the real size of the outing.
The route took some work to get right. The Columbia Star reported in September that crews drew the path from aerial footage, then walked the whole length and adjusted it to improve views, use scenic points and cut costs where they could.
Who Built It, and on Whose Land
The Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission built the trail on land that is mostly not public. ICRC's July press release says about 95% of Phase One sits on Dominion Energy property, and it credits Dominion with easements, planning support and environmental stewardship. The release lists the Central Midlands Council of Governments, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, Lexington County, the Midlands Business Leadership Group, the State of South Carolina and The Mungo Foundation as partners.
According to The Columbia Star, ICRC Executive Director Mark Smyers said park revenue paid for Phase One and no taxes were involved. He also thanked Dominion: "There's no way we could have done this without their contribution." At the August ribbon-cutting, the Lexington County Chronicle listed Smyers, Rep. Chris Wooten, ICRC commissioner Michael Cromer, Dominion Energy South Carolina president Keller Kissam and Saluda Shoals Park director Lindsay Hudson as speakers.
Dominion is the landlord along most of the path, and it also runs the dam that controls the river beside it. That's the second clock.
Clock One: The Gate at Dreher Shoals Landing
The landing runs on a seasonal schedule, every day of the week:
| Dates | Dreher Shoals Landing hours |
|---|---|
| March 8 to September 14 | 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. |
| September 15 to October 31 | 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. |
| November 1 to March 7 | 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
| Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day | Closed |
The November change is the one to plan around. November 1, 2026 is a Sunday, the first Sunday of the month, so the landing moves to its 6 p.m. close on the same morning daylight saving time ends and clocks fall back an hour. The landing loses an hour at closing, and evening light also comes an hour earlier on the clock. An after-work loop that fits easily in mid-October gets tight overnight, and stays tight until March 7.
Right now the landing closes at 7 p.m. The rest of October is the last stretch of the year when a weekday walk can start late in the afternoon.
What Parking Costs, Visit by Visit
Parking at either Dreher Shoals Landing or Saluda Shoals Park, 5605 Bush River Road, costs $7 a day for a car or minivan and $15 for a 12-plus passenger van or bus. Trailers can't park at either lot. The pass options change the math quickly for anyone who lives nearby:
- 1-Month Park Pass, $10 per vehicle: covers Saluda Shoals Park East and West gates and Dreher Shoals Landing. Two visits in a month cost $14 at the daily rate, so the pass pays for itself on the second visit.
- Annual Parking Pass, $75 per year: same access as the monthly pass, during regular park hours. Twelve monthly passes cost $120, and eleven daily visits come to $77. An extra hang tag, limit one per household, costs $40.
- Extended Pass, $100 per year: 24-hour access to Saluda Shoals Park through a coded entry system. An extra hang tag costs $50. The 1-Month Extended Pass, $15, is good only at the park's East and West gates.
The fine print matters most for that last pass. The extended passes are written around Saluda Shoals Park's gates, so they don't change the hours at Dreher Shoals Landing. A winter walker who wants an early start or a late finish would plan from the park end.
You buy passes at the Saluda Shoals Park administrative building, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, or by calling 803-772-1228. You'll need your vehicle's make, model and tag number for each hang tag. A Post and Courier preview, written while the trail was still under construction, listed Saluda Shoals Park entry at $5 per vehicle. ICRC's current page lists $7.
Clock Two: The River Beside the Path
The Lower Saluda doesn't behave like a lake. Dominion says Saluda Hydro operations change the river's flow below the dam, can happen at any time without notice, and can raise or lower the water once they start or stop. Dominion also says the operation times it posts are approximate. Its hazardous-waters guidance warns that turbines may start immediately and the flow can rise significantly within seconds. It also warns that the cold release water can cause shock and hypothermia. Anyone near the water should move to safety if a siren sounds, strobes flash, or the river starts rising.
SCDNR's Lower Saluda page puts typical daily flows at 400 to 20,000 cubic feet per second and the water temperature at about 60°F. It warns that conditions can change within a couple of hours after a release. To compare, Dominion's live Lower Saluda page showed 971 cfs at 12:30 a.m. on October 8, 2026, near the low end of that range.
On the paved path, this mostly matters for the spur trips down to the bank: a dog that wants to wade, a child at the water's edge, someone carrying a kayak. Two tools make the river easier to read:
- Check the live page before you leave. Dominion's Lower Saluda page shows current flow and current or planned operations. SCDNR also points river users to it and to the USGS gage below Lake Murray Dam.
- Sign up for release alerts. Dominion's Saluda Hydro Release Notification System sends a voice call, email or text when releases go above minimum flow. Phone alerts can run 24 hours a day or only from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and enrollment can take about a week.
Dominion's own warnings list sirens and strobes as signals. They don't say those signals reach every stretch of the new trail, so the alerts are worth having for anyone who walks the river often.
The Same Day, Up the Hill
The trail opened the same day Dominion finished a separate project at the dam. Thechapinnews.com reported on August 19 that Dominion had completed restoring the Saluda dam intake towers, a two-year project that began in 2024. Crews fitted the five-tower array with new headgates, which control water flowing into the hydroelectric plant, and repaired the masonry on the historic brick towers. The towers rise 223 feet above the lake and have served the Saluda Hydroelectric Project for about 100 years. Part of nearby Lake Murray Park was closed during the work for equipment staging. A permanent 200-foot exclusion zone around the towers still applies to boaters, and SCDNR enforces it. Those headgates send water into the plant, and the plant's output is the river you see from the boardwalk.
October at the Saluda Shoals End
The park end of the trail has a full calendar this month, and all of it falls before the November change:
- Boo-vie in the Park, Friday, October 9: 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Saluda Shoals Park East. Parking opens at 6:30 p.m., and the movie starts after sunset.
- Halloween Trick-or-Treat Trail, Saturday, October 10: 2 to 4:30 p.m., on the path around Leo's Landing Inclusive Playground.
- Guided Fall Foliage paddle tour, Sunday, October 25: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It depends on weather and river conditions, the same conditions on Dominion's flow page.
What Comes After Phase 1
Phase Two will run the trail from Saluda Shoals Park to Gardendale Landing. Once the full route is done, it will be about 8.5 miles of paved trail from Dreher Shoals Dam. The long-term plan is to connect to the Saluda Riverwalk behind Riverbanks Zoo after the Carolina Crossroads project is finished. The Post and Courier reported that Phase Two permitting is complete and that ICRC's Jay Downs hopes to start soon, without giving a start or finish date. For this fall and winter, the trail is the 2.5 miles from the dam to the park, open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. through October 31 and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. from November 1.
At The SC Key Group, we keep track of how new public spaces like the Riverwalk change daily life around Lake Murray. If you live near Bush River Road or the dam and want to know where your home stands with a new trailhead nearby, Request Your Home Valuation and we'll go through it with you.
