South Carolina

Congaree
Field Guide

The largest intact expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States, where champion trees rise from a floodplain that floods on purpose.

A complete planning guide to Congaree National Park. Covers the 2.4-mile Boardwalk Loop through towering old-growth forest, paddling the Cedar Creek National Wild and Scenic River canoe trail, the mid-to-late May synchronous firefly event, the park's champion loblolly pines and bald cypress, the seasonal flooding that renews the floodplain, the 1976 monument designation and 2003 redesignation as a national park, camping at Longleaf and Bluff campgrounds, wildlife from otters and deer to pileated woodpeckers and cottonmouths, and the official NPS park map.

14: pages
PDF: instant download
Aug 2026: last updated

What's inside

1Walking the 2.4-mile elevated Boardwalk Loop through the largest intact old-growth bottomland forest in the U.S.
2Paddling the Cedar Creek Canoe Trail, a designated National Wild and Scenic River winding beneath champion trees
3Witnessing the synchronous fireflies' brief mid-to-late May mating display, one of only a few such sites in North America
4Why a forest that floods roughly ten times a year is exactly what keeps its trees among the tallest in the eastern U.S.