Hiking the Swamp at Congaree National Park. 46/61.
Congaree National Park, SC - Wed, 3 Jul 2019, 11:30am
Today we hiked in a swamp. Why? Because it's there. More specifically, because it's there and it's a national park. Visiting all 61 of the national parks is one of our bucket list items. Visiting the newest national park, Indiana Dunes, earlier this week was number 45 for us. Today is 46/61 with Congaree National Park.
I've written before that Congaree is not really near anything we have any particular reason to visit. It's about 30 minutes from Columbia, SC, an hour and a half to two hours from Charleston, and about the same from Charlotte, NC. But much like we crafted a trip plan to visit out-of-our-way Cuyahoga Valley National Park last summer this summer we crafted a plan to visit Indiana Dunes- and Congaree.
That's why our plan had us visiting Charleston earlier in the week and driving to Columbia last night. This morning it was an easy 30 minutes or so drive out to the park from Columbia. Once we left town the roads were practically empty.
This "Mosquito Meter" bodes ill for this hike...The park was quiet, too. There were only 10 or so cars in the parking lot, and I think half of them might have been park employees. We arrived just before the visitors center opened at 9am. We waited outside for a few minutes as the rangers got ready for the day.
Outside the park office was an equally amusing and ominous sign, a Mosquito Meter. The fact that it was only dialed up to 3/6 gave me some comfort, though since I'm a favorite with mosquitos even the "Moderate" category doesn't bode well. I could be merely moderately swollen after the hike....
We gathered information inside the office and selected a combination of hikes that would take us on a double loop of about 4.5 miles total. With our early start the temperature was "only" in the upper 80s (around 31° C) - part of the reason we left the hotel at 8am today instead of staying until until 11 like yesterday.
The first loop in the park follows an elevated walkway through swamp terrain
The first part of the route we hiked traverses a boardwalk trail. It delves into the swamp where a combination of deciduous and coniferous trees grow. Among the tallest deciduous trees are the bald cypress. They're common throughout South Carolina's lowlands. They're easily recognizable with their trunks that start to spread out into roots above ground.
The roots of cypress trees grow these "knees" that reach back above ground
Cypress are also recognizable for their "knees", growths on their roots that rise back above ground level. Scientists aren't sure the exact function of these knees. One hypothesis is that they provide the root system extra structural support during floods and high winds. Another hypothesis is that the knees provide access to oxygen for when the ground floods. It's entirely possibly both are true.
One interesting factoid we read while on this trek is that the muck in this swampland is up to 8 feet deep. It's a combination of clay and dead plant matter.
Further out from the visitor center we left the boardwalk and took a surface trail even deeper into the swamp. We quickly noticed that being on the boardwalk not only protected us from having to step around squishy puddles in the muck but it also kept us just far enough away from the mosquitos that they didn't notice us. Down at ground level... well, the mosquitos were fierce. We routinely had a cloud of dozens of them following each of us. Whenever we stopped- or even slowed down- they started to land. The only way not to have to swat them away constantly them was to keep moving, fast. Thus we didn't stop to take many pictures in the backcountry. If that was merely "Moderate" per the Mosquito Meter I'd hate to see "Ruthless"... let alone "War Zone"!
Today we hiked in a swamp. Why? Because it's there. More specifically, because it's there and it's a national park. Visiting all 61 of the national parks is one of our bucket list items. Visiting the newest national park, Indiana Dunes, earlier this week was number 45 for us. Today is 46/61 with Congaree National Park.
I've written before that Congaree is not really near anything we have any particular reason to visit. It's about 30 minutes from Columbia, SC, an hour and a half to two hours from Charleston, and about the same from Charlotte, NC. But much like we crafted a trip plan to visit out-of-our-way Cuyahoga Valley National Park last summer this summer we crafted a plan to visit Indiana Dunes- and Congaree.
That's why our plan had us visiting Charleston earlier in the week and driving to Columbia last night. This morning it was an easy 30 minutes or so drive out to the park from Columbia. Once we left town the roads were practically empty.
This "Mosquito Meter" bodes ill for this hike...The park was quiet, too. There were only 10 or so cars in the parking lot, and I think half of them might have been park employees. We arrived just before the visitors center opened at 9am. We waited outside for a few minutes as the rangers got ready for the day.
Outside the park office was an equally amusing and ominous sign, a Mosquito Meter. The fact that it was only dialed up to 3/6 gave me some comfort, though since I'm a favorite with mosquitos even the "Moderate" category doesn't bode well. I could be merely moderately swollen after the hike....
We gathered information inside the office and selected a combination of hikes that would take us on a double loop of about 4.5 miles total. With our early start the temperature was "only" in the upper 80s (around 31° C) - part of the reason we left the hotel at 8am today instead of staying until until 11 like yesterday.
The first loop in the park follows an elevated walkway through swamp terrain
The first part of the route we hiked traverses a boardwalk trail. It delves into the swamp where a combination of deciduous and coniferous trees grow. Among the tallest deciduous trees are the bald cypress. They're common throughout South Carolina's lowlands. They're easily recognizable with their trunks that start to spread out into roots above ground.
The roots of cypress trees grow these "knees" that reach back above ground
Cypress are also recognizable for their "knees", growths on their roots that rise back above ground level. Scientists aren't sure the exact function of these knees. One hypothesis is that they provide the root system extra structural support during floods and high winds. Another hypothesis is that the knees provide access to oxygen for when the ground floods. It's entirely possibly both are true.
One interesting factoid we read while on this trek is that the muck in this swampland is up to 8 feet deep. It's a combination of clay and dead plant matter.
Further out from the visitor center we left the boardwalk and took a surface trail even deeper into the swamp. We quickly noticed that being on the boardwalk not only protected us from having to step around squishy puddles in the muck but it also kept us just far enough away from the mosquitos that they didn't notice us. Down at ground level... well, the mosquitos were fierce. We routinely had a cloud of dozens of them following each of us. Whenever we stopped- or even slowed down- they started to land. The only way not to have to swat them away constantly them was to keep moving, fast. Thus we didn't stop to take many pictures in the backcountry. If that was merely "Moderate" per the Mosquito Meter I'd hate to see "Ruthless"... let alone "War Zone"!