Trip North - Columbia SC - Congaree National Park

Today's adventure is to the Congaree National Park less than 20 miles away

 I had never heard of this Park

 It protects the largest remaining tract of Old Growth Forest in North America.

 We are glad to see the Mosquito Meter reads All Clear!

 There are many trails but  due to the recent rains we choose the 2.4 mile boardwalk Tour.

This American Beech tree is over 100 years old.

 The boardwalk meanders through old growth Loblolly Pine and Cypress trees

 The average tree height here is 130'.  This Loblolly Pine is over 150' tall and is a former State Champion.

 If a tree falls in the forest . . .  Many trees came down during 

Hurricane Hugo in 1989

We switch from the elevated boardwalk to the low one.

South Carolina is known as the Palmetto State.  These are dwarf palmettos.   They do best in wet, sandy areas where a disturbance like hurricanes cause a gap in the canopy

 A different Lake Weston than the one we are staying on.  It was once a bend in the Congaree River and is now an Oxbow Lake. 

 When the 18th Amendment was passed in 1919 prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol, Moonshiners and bootleggers took advantage of the forest's terrain and tall trees to hide their stills.

This is a Gut - Guts and Sloughs are low channels in the forest that help  disperse water through the floodplain. 

 The Bald Cypress have "knees" that sprout up from the roots.   It is thought that hey provide extra structural support during floods and high winds.  Cypress can live to be 1,000 years old. 

 The mud along the boardwalk is a mix of clay and old leaves and is called Dunrovan Muck.  It is 8' thick and filters water, traps pollutants and turns them into harmless compounds.  It keeps the floodplain and Congaree River clean.

We stop at the Vistor's Center on our way out.

 So glad that Harry Hampton a reporter and editor for the State Newspaper started a campaign in the 1950's to save this floodplain.  35 million acres of old growth flood plain forests used to grow in the South East U.S.  Today over 99 percent of this forest is gone.  Less than 1/2 of 1 percent - 11,000 acres is protected in the Park. 

 The cars in the parking lot are dwarfed by these trees.