Fourth/Fifth Stops: Congaree National Park and Santee SP

This park in Hopkins, SC became a national park in 2003 and we've never been keenly interested in going to see it after looking at pictures, but on this trip it was on our way from one stop to the next pretty much so we stopped and took a hike. Actually, playing Trekking the National parks also helped inspire me! 

We walked the boardwalk trail to observe what Randy calls the swamp.  He thinks it should be called Congaree Natl Swamp!

To be a bit more scientific than my retired scientist, I'll share what their brochure says: Congaree National Park protects the largest remnant of old-growth floodplain forest in the United States.

The broad base bald cypress and their knees (root system) are abundant.  Some of considered "champion trees" - the largest of their kind in the state or even in the nation.  The park has other champion trees like pawpaw, loblolly pine, and sweetgum."

See the "face"?

They were doing a controlled burn by the road, but fortunately it was so far from where we walked that we didn't smell the smoke. The park uses fire carefully to restore the long-leaf pine forest that dominated the upland regions of the park in the past.  These trees depend on regular fire to keep fast-growing hardwoods from taking over.

It was just another 40 miles on to our campground.  (They only have primitive camping at Congaree.)

We loved the 7 mile bike path at Santee, that partly was along the shores of huge man-made Lake Marion.

We didn't hike any trails with these signs posted at the trailhead!

I do enjoy mountain bike trails through the woods that are "easy" like this one was, without a lot of roots and thrills and spills!

It still amazes me that we tied in both games we played of Trekking the National Parks. It barely fits on the table in our motorhome.

a huge limestone sinkhole

South Caroline jasmine is a vine that grows in lots of the trees and is so pretty!

Our corner campsite in Cypress View CG was our least favorite of the entire trip.  We fortunately were only on it two nights before we moved to Lake Shore CG on the east end of the park, where we had more room between us and our neighbors.  We had an RV practically on TOP of us on the right that I carefully did NOT include in the picture!

 

We sat over by the lake Sabbath afternoon, soaking up the lake breeze.  Our site wasn't far from this spot but they don't have many actual lakeside sites. 

They have 30 cabins and 10 are built on a pier that are unusual