Last year, America’s national parks received more than 330 million visitors, with places like the Blue Ridge Parkway and Golden Gate National Recreation Area seeing roughly 15 million visitors. With more well-known destinations welcoming millions of adventurers, you may be wondering which national parks are better to visit if you’re looking to beat the crowds. Let’s head to Congaree National Park in South Carolina to uncover a hidden gem of the National Parks System that only has about 160,000 visitors yearly.

Open 24/7/365, Congaree National Park can be found just a half-hour outside of the city of Columbia in South Carolina.
Sibylle B/TripAdvisor
Established as a national park for over 15 years now, Congaree is the only national park that you'll find within the Palmetto State, and it's free to visit!
JimSTL1021/TripAdvisor
With more than half of the park's land designated as wilderness area, you'll find well-preserved pieces of nature hiding out here in the forest.
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Congaree National Park has more than 20 miles of hiking trails, but the most famous area to hike through is along the 2.4-mile-long Boardwalk Loop Trail.
Ken Lund/Flickr
Taking you past epic waterfront views, the trail features the largest group of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest that you'll find in North America.
JBrianne715/TripAdvisor

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The average height of Congaree National Park's canopy is 100 feet tall, with unique-looking cypress knees decorated all along the forest floor.
JBrianne715/TripAdvisor
From the tops of the trees to the bottom of the floodplain, you can find all sorts of wildlife everywhere you look. You'll want to keep an eye out for things like wild pigs and armadillo.
TT-Traveller/TripAdvisor
As you're making your way through the park you might notice visitors floating their way through the Congaree River, a popular place to go canoeing and kayaking.
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Because the park features a floodplain forest, you'll sometimes find that the boardwalks here may be flooded, making for a unique walk through the woods.
anoldent/Flickr
With head-turning wildlife and some of tallest trees in the Eastern United States, don't let another year go by without exploring one of our country's most underrated national parks!
Sibylle B/TripAdvisor
Before you begin your adventure at Congaree National Park it's always a good idea to stop by the Visitors Center, which has plenty of maps and restrooms that you can use during operating hours.

To learn more about why Congaree National Park is so amazing, click here!

What’s your favorite natural getaway in the beautiful state of South Carolina? Tell us all about your picks in the comments.

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More to Explore

National Park to Visit in South Carolina

Tori Jane | January 30, 2022

What are the best parks in South Carolina for families?  

South Carolina is a wonderful place to raise up a family, and as a result, it’s home to lots of wonderful parks with super-awesome places to play for the little ones. Some of our favorites include Gahagan Playground, in Summerville, and Herdklotz Park, in Greenville. Augusta is home to Riverview Park (which is EXACTLY what it sounds like – a park on a river), and in Lexington you’ll find the Virginia Hylton Park. For more information about each of these and then some, check out this article for seven wonderful playgrounds that’ll make you feel like a kid again yourself. Why let the kids have ALL the fun?  

What are the best hiking trails in Congaree National Park?  

Like we outlined above, Congaree National Park is tragically underrated, and that includes when it comes to hiking, too. It’s a large place, but it’s got a fairly limited selection of trails – only nine at this time. The ones that are present, however, are truly amazing, and we think you ought to make time to explore them all! The single highest-rated and most-popular trail in Congaree National Park, according to our good friends over at AllTrails.com, is the Boardwalk Loop Trail. It's an interesting trek through an amazingly diverse old-growth forest; the trail is raised nearly six feet off the forest floor. It’s two miles of awesomeness and it should be the first one on your to-do list, if you ask us! Next is the unforgettable Weston Lake Loop Trail, which covers almost five miles of beautiful surroundings and occasionally closes during floods, so make sure to double-check that it’s open before you head out. There’s also the Oakridge Trail, River Trail, Kingsnake Trail, Sims Trail, Bluff Trail... the list goes on. It’s endless amounts of fun!  

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Congaree National Park, South Carolina 29061, USA