We Visited All 63 U.S. National Parks

When visited:            June, 2013

Date Established:     November 10, 2003

Park ranking:            57 out of 63

Why to go:               Very unique boardwalk access through the flooded forests

Why not to go:        Not a ton to do outside of the boardwalk – 7^th smallest national park

We stopped at Congaree National Park in June, 2013 on our way back from a week at Kiawah Island, South Carolina.  Our son, Thomas had just graduated high school and he had chosen Kiawah as one of our summer destinations.  Kiawah is a beautiful island with amazing beaches, sea life, kayaking and golf!  The Ocean Course has held PGA events and the Ryder Cup in the past and he wanted to play it.  We had been there years before, but our kids were too small – in fact we didn’t play the Ocean Course (we played 2 others) in 2013 either – but that’s a different story.  (We did play the next time we visited in 2019 and thoroughly enjoyed it).

Congaree — a swamp? No a flooded, forest ecosystem

Congaree is a national park near Columbia, South Carolina and less than two hours from Charleston, South Carolina (or 2.5 hours from Kiawah).

The dark waters of the river and the moss on the trees

We chose Congaree to break up our trip home and because Missy and I had never been.  We were closing in our seeing our 40^th park.  We were only able to spend a few hours there but the walk through the flooded forests on the boardwalk left memories – the water was so dark – how were the trees living?    We embarked on the 2.6-mile boardwalk tour that left from the Harry Hampton Visitor Center and used the self-guided Boardwalk Tour brochure.

What creates this unique ecosystem?  The Congaree forests withstand frequent flooding from the river.  It hosts the largest remaining tract of old growth bottomland hardwood.  We read and we learned as we travelled the path – we were also treated to visits by pileated woodpeckers flying through the trees – that was the first time I ever recall seeing them.

Pileated Woodpeckers were very active

Congaree is a small park and we only visited for a few hours — it ranks ahead of some of the other parks due to its unique landscape – aside from the Everglades there aren’t many national parks that resemble swamps – and visiting Congaree gave me a new appreciation of the dark beauty of the ecosystem.  Perhaps a return visit to kayak the river?

Congaree forest

Photo Credits to by son, Matthew, as I could not find mine from that long ago