We are leaving the coastline and heading toward Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We needed an overnight stop along the way and got all excited about a visit to the newest National Park, Congaree NP, near Columbia, SC. It sits between the Cangaree and Waccamaw Rivers. They have ranger led canoe trips through the swamp and ranger led walks to see the barred owl. Both sounded great to us only to find out that they are only on weekends and the tours were all ready filled with a long waiting list. We decided to drive a little out of our way and have a picnic lunch there anyway. We took a 2 mile hike along the boardwalk walking under the canopy of trees. It is one area that has been pretty much left alone through the years and is one of the last stands of floodplain forests. It was simply too hard for loggers to cut down the cypress, pines and hardwoods. When loggers were going to make another try to do some logging in the 1970‘s, the locals got in an uproar eventually saving the land as a National Monument. Conditions are just right for tree growth to make it one of the tallest canopies in the world. The cypress were the largest we have seen. Many of the tree species in this park are champions, meaning they are the largest of their kind in circumference, height and canopy. It was really hot out in the sun, close to 90 degrees, but very pleasant under the canopy walking along the boardwalk. We are spending the night in an RV park west of Columbia in Joana and be in Tennessee tomorrow.
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| Beautiful Cypress with Cypress Knees Sticking Up |
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| Pretty yellow Flowers Under the Forest Canopy |
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