Congaree National Park Guide

South Carolina’s only national park protects the largest intact expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the southeastern United States: a floodplain jungle of enormous trees about 18 miles southeast of Columbia, where the average canopy tops 100 feet and the National Champion loblolly pine was last measured at 170 feet, among some of the tallest trees in eastern North America. People call them “the redwoods of the East,” and walking the 2.6-mile Boardwalk Loop through the dim, green, primeval bottomland is genuinely awe-inspiring. A rebuild finished in May 2026 left about three-quarters of the boardwalk elevated above average flood levels, though the park still floods about 10 times a year, so check NPS alerts before you drive. Its rarest show comes for about two weeks between mid-May and mid-June, when synchronous fireflies flash in unison across the forest floor. Congaree is one of only a few places where the conditions line up, and the park runs a Recreation.gov lottery for a spot.