On our way into North Carolina, we were able to stop into Congaree National Park for a few hours, learn about its history and explore its most popular trail. Located just 30 minutes south of Columbia, South Carolinas capital, Congaree is home to the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States. Congraree is one of the newest National Parks. In 2003 it officially changed from Congaree Swamp National Monument to Congaree National Park.
Since its so close to Colombia, the park is easy to access and when we went on a Thursday, parking wasn't an issue. We only had a couple of hours to spend in the park, so we set off to the visitor center to learn about the parks history, and available activities. Sabrina and I love watching the National Park videos that most visitor centers have, so we watched the 15 min presentation which talked about the history, bio-diversity, and the importance of wilderness conservation. The videos are a great introduction to the park and we always recommend our friends to watch them whenever they visit a National Park!
Congaree has this infamous "mosquito meter", which the rangers update as the mosquito population changes in the park. We were at a 2.5? and saw a fair number of mosquitos, but managed to avoid being bitten!
Boardwalk Loop Trail
The friendly park ranger recommended, for our limited time constraint, we do the 2.4 mile Boardwalk Loop Trail. The trail offered a self-guided tour that walked through some park history, and showed the bio-diversity in the park. Congaree NP is a flood plain, so after any amount of rain, the entire park floods. Moss on the outside of the trees in the park show how high the water can get, upwards of 8 feet from what I could tell!
For the entire 2.4 mile/1.5 hours, we walked along the boardwalk enjoying the sounds of nature. We heard singing birds searching for a mate, a woodpeckers taps echoed through the forest and the buzz of mosquitos and fireflies could be heard everywhere along the trail. The boardwalk trail showed a surprising amount of bio-diversity in the short 2.4 mile loop. We saw a bunch of wildlife; turtles, lizards, salamanders, birds, fish, a deer and we heard there was an alligator swimming around somewhere.
The boardwalk was the perfect introduction to a unique and lesser known park. It showed off the parks beauty without making you work for it! When we come back next time, we will take a back-country trail further into the park and rent a canoe to take us down one of the swampy rivers.
Fireflies
For about two weeks of the year, between mid-may and mid-june, Congaree NP is known for a very special natural phenomenon. A unique and specific species of fireflies are abundant in the park and synchronize together flashing their light, looking for a mate. We were told that the parking fills up at 6:00 pm and the fireflies come out at about 8:00 pm. Unfortunately we were not able to stay long enough to experience this marvel, but we'll be back in the future!
Before leaving, we stamped our NP Passport with the Congaree NP stamp, and grabbed a patch to help us remember the visit! It was the perfect introduction to a beautiful park!
