From Columbia, I took Blossom St out past the airport. Stay on 302 and SC 6 joins it. In about a mile, 6 branches off to the left. In about 2 miles, Kiosks for Peachtree Rock Heritage Preserve will be on your left.
Peachtree Rock Rd turns there to the left. Do not take this road. I did and it does not go to the Preserve.
The trail is actually just there beside the kiosks on SC 6.
It is completely deserted, but I want to see the rock. The trail goes downhill through a series of man made and natural root steps through a sandy pine forest. There are branching trails and the entire trail is a 7.3 mile loop. According to the kiosk map, I bear to the left, but I keep making small crosses of twigs and put them in the trail so that I can find my way back. Soon there is mountain laurel blooming and this is not the mountains.
The big Peachtree Rock is not really far and you can see the Secret Waterfall trickling off to the left, the only waterfall in the coastal plain.
The rock might be thought to be in the shape of a peach tree, but it is more like an upside down pyramid, or a giant spinning top that is not spinning. There are fossils of sea life here, estimated to be 60 million years old, of the Eocene period when the ocean washed here on the coast of North America.
Farther on there is a similar but smaller formation called Little Peachtree Rock..
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