Is Congaree National Park Worth Visiting?

Since Congaree National Park was designated by Congress in 2003, it has been the subject of an intense online debate about whether it is worth visiting. Yahoo Travel called it one of the worst national parks. It said it was a “small park with a boardwalk through a swamp” with the “main function of the boardwalk seems to be to better present visitors to the swarms of mosquitos.”

However, several travel and outdoor websites have disagreed. Rand McNally in 2018 considered it one of 9 lesser-known national parks worth the visit. Gear Patrol considers it one of the 10 overlooked parks. And the park’s Fireflies Festival sees visitors take the bus from the state fairgrounds in Columbia to the park over Memorial Day weekend to experience the annual event.

Should you put Congaree on your list of future vacation destinations for May or another time? With 61 other national parks and hundreds of other national park sites to consider visiting, there is a lot of competition for your vacation time.

We went to Congaree National Park in April 2019. We planned a canoe trip down the Congaree River Blue Trail from Columbia to the Highway 601 Bridge. The trip was unfortunately rained out as the high water prevented us from starting on the journey due to the lack of sandbars to sleep on. Instead, we spent about 48 hours around the park (Saturday to Monday), explored the boardwalk and camped in Longleaf campground.

Here is our view on whether Congaree National Park is worth visiting:

Congaree makes for an excellent road trip stop or quick weekend trip. It is under two hours from Charleston and three hours from Savannah, for an excellent adjunct stop to a week long vacation based in either location.

If you have a special interest in one of the highlights of Congaree, more time may be warranted. It is one of only a few places in the United States where you can experience the mating ritual of synchronized fireflies. It can be an excellent place to see owls and pileated woodpeckers. Tall trees are in abundance here too. The Congaree River Blue Trail also seems to have the makings of a great multi-day canoe or kayak adventure.

It is also a great place to enjoy the silence and sounds of the forest. If your goal is to get off the grid without being too far from civilization, Congaree is a decent option. I was able to get cell phone coverage from Longleaf campground, but the trails provide a way to escape and get lost in a different world.

However, the park does not contain the diversity of activities of Yellowstone and Yosemite, and it is substantially smaller in size than either of these destination parks. This means that it is tough to fill an entire week of vacation within the park. If you have children, the park is unlikely to keep them entertained for days.

The mosquitos can also be annoying. The Congaree Visitor Center contains a sign which demarks their status from 1 (All Clear) to 6 (War Zone). The status was marked as a two when we were there in April, and they were not bad when we were walking around on the Boardwalk during the day but they were annoying when we were sitting in the campsite at night.

There is also the flooding problem to consider when you are planning your journey here. Congaree is situated on a floodplain. When the Congaree River is high and flooding the area, many of the trails (and even sometimes the boardwalk) are underwater. The frontcountry campgrounds and visitor center are on high ground, but the number of activities can be limited. The Kingsnake Trail, Weston Lake Loop Trail, Oakridge Trail and River Trail were not possible to hike when we were there.

It is also not recommended to go kayaking or canoeing through the park at that time because it can be difficult to follow the path through the forest when the water is over the banks.

The above can ruin a trip to Congaree National Park pretty quickly. In our case, we had to change our initial plans and even the backup plans were limited by the flooding. We ended up leaving early and spending two days in Charleston, where we had a lot of fun. We almost always need more time at a national park than we have, but we were both ready to leave Congaree after two days of exploration.

On our first day there, we drove up to Columbia and saw the Congaree River from our intended departure point. It looked so pretty and made us long for the time when we will be able to go back and complete our planned adventure down the Blue Trail. So neither of us are willing to give up on exploring Congaree National Park. We really blamed it on the weather and will be taking another shot in the next few years. So you have our answer for now!