Congaree National Park

Congaree National Park is a relatively new addition to the National Park System. 

The Park protects the largest bottomland old-growth hardwood forest in North America.

To be clear this is an RV day trip!  There is NO overnight RV parking within the park boundaries.  But so worth a day trip diversion.

The park covers over 26,000 acres of the Congaree River, and contains the tract of old growth bottomland forest in the US.

Prior to a grass-roots roots effort to save the swamp, logging of the old growth cypress trees was performed.

In 1976 the Congaree Swamp National Monument was formed.

In 2003 the Monument was elevated to Congaree National Park.

John and Sharon (On the Road of Retirement) stopped at Congaree in 2022.  Their blog can be found HERE.  We’ll be doing the same boardwalk they hiked.  The trail is an elevated wooden boardwalk 2.4 miles

There are numbered stops along the boardwalk, having the tour pamphlet is handy.

The mud under the boardwalk is called Dorovan muck.  It is 8’ of clay and decomposing leaves.

Large Bald Cypress trees are seen throughout the walk.

The boardwalk winds around many of the old growth trees.

The spikes rising from the ground are not stumps, but ‘knees’.  The purpose of the roots generating these knees is not known.

The rich muck produces the some of the tallest trees in the east.

There were 5 turtles at the overlook of Weston Lake.

Loblolly Pine trees are the tallest trees in South Carolina.  This one is over 150’ tall.  I didn’t get a picture of the height, but check out the unique bark.

The remains of an old still

And a water snake

Although we could not stay in the park, we found a nice spot next to a loblolly pine.