On this trip I spent 3 days hiking and camping in South Carolina's Congaree National Park. The majority of Congaree is an Eastern Lowlands Forest, which is a fancy way of saying it is quite swampy. This was my first time backpacking in such an environment.

My first day started out with an easy 1-mile hike in from Longleaf Parking to the Bluff Campground. This area of the Park is a Pine Forest. Fortunately Bluff Campground is situated on the Park's high elevation and doesn't routinely flood like the Eastern Lowlands section, so all camping was dry. I grabbed my designated spot in the camping area and prepped firewood for the upcoming sub-freezing night.

Day 2 was my big hiking day of the trip. I started out along the Elevated Boardwalk Trail, and by virtue of being there first thing in the morning I pretty much had the place to myself. This was my first taste of the Eastern Lowlands Forest - the dark waters flowed beneath the boardwalk with Congaree's large trees rising up around me. I soon broke away from the popular Boardwalk Trail and explored various backcountry trails until they each inevitably petered out into floodwaters. The towering trees in the Congaree Wilderness were spectacular - Congaree hosts more Champion Trees than anywhere else in North America.

Temps stayed above freezing for my final night. On Day 3 I hiked back up to finish off the rest of the Boardwalk Trail and enjoyed one last excursion in the "swamp" before returning to my car at Longleaf Parking. Only about 50% of the trail network was accessible on this visit, plenty left to explore in the future.


Thanks for watching!
Layne