Congaree National Park

South Carolina

December 2014

 

This was Laurel's first visit to Congaree National Park. The picture below was taken after our hike in the rain and Kellisa was busy drying off in the car. She didn't take our customary sign picture because this was her third visit (first visit- July 2006 /second visit- May 2013)  to one of our favorite national parks.

 

 

A huge benefit to visiting in the winter:

 

 

We will hike along paved and boardwalk trails, but we're not huge fans because they are usually short and lead to almost nowhere. It's my belief that parks feel "obligated" to do a little something for the disabled community, so they build a short accessible trail just beyond the visitor center to be able to call the park "accessible".

 

 However, the 2.4 mile Boardwalk Loop Trail is the main reason we were visiting the Congaree and love the park so much. The boardwalk is a nice distance and leads deep into the swamp. We were disappointed to learn that part of the boardwalk was damaged in a recent severe storm and was closed until it can be repaired (sometime in 2015?). In a light drizzle, we headed out to hike as much of the boardwalk as possible. We heard many birds in the trees, but it was hard to see them. We even heard a few woodpeckers, but never spotted them.

 

The rain seemed to bring out the green in this winter forest.

 

The forest would take on a gloomy appearance in between the rain.

 

The little drizzle turned into a pretty good rainstorm:

 

Kellisa loved the rain, but really could have used a good pair of waterproof pants (which we purchased as soon as we got back to Jacksonville).

 

This was an unfortunate time to find out that Laurel's raincoat didn't zip over a heavy fleece. I left the decision up to Laurel and she was a trooper as we continued our hike. We purchased a new raincoat when we got home.

 

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