Congaree National Park is located in South Carolina, south of Columbia. This park is historically on the list of the top 10 least visited national parks. It is a sad fact. This is an incredibly beautiful place. It is flood water plain but for us common folks it is a swamp. Some of the tallest trees on the east coast are in this park. We spent the day in the park following the 2.4 mile boardwalk trail. This trail is handicap and stroller accessible. There is a self guided board walk tour that is numbered so that you can read about the ecology of the park as you walk around.

This park was created in 1976 to protect the forest in this area. There is an amazing history in this area. Enslaved people who had run away created a community within this flood plan because it was hard to them to be tracked. You can still see remnants of of a still that was placed in the area during Prohibition.

You can canoe, hike and camp in this park. Ideally, I would visit in any season but summer. This place has got to be a mosquito haven due to all the standing water. There is a mosquito meter near the visitor center that lets know how the mosquitos are for the day. There are all matter of reptiles and amphibians in this park. There are five different kinds of snakes. We did not see any but we know that they are there. We loved moving around the park and sitting quietly to see what we could hear. We could hear the wood peckers and an owl even though we did not see them. We could see where the feral hogs had been rooting around for food. We spied different types of mushroom and fungi growing on the trees. It is a wonderous place. I have seen nothing like this before.