Park Number: 38/63

First Visited: April 23, 2013

When I read about Congaree I chuckle. The park lays claim to some weird and long-winded accolades: The largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States, or One of the highest temperate deciduous forest canopies remaining in the world.

Without knowing these accolades, you still understand the one-of-a-kind nature of the place upon visitation. The floodplains reflecting deciduous greens of plentiful hues; the ghoulish-growths of bald cypress knees stemming out of the water; the Eastern cottonmouth snakes, pileated woodpeckers, and white-tailed deer navigating the terrain. It’s a wild ecosystem unique to the region, mostly inaccessible to the lay visitor, with a 2.4-mile boardwalk loop the extent of most people’s adventure. I like this though, the impassable landscape more attuned to a kayak or canoe or simply the imagination, because it makes the place feel genuine—a park not for the enjoyment of the people (especially with the swarms of mosquitoes) but a park left to challenge the people.

Congaree is the ancestral lands of the Congaree Tribe.

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