Congaree National Park

Hi Everyone,

We left West Virginia yesterday morning in 37 degrees and arrived that afternoon in Lexington, South Carolina.  We found out that the SF 49ers went to the Greenbrier bunker a week before us (we were a week too late!).  We have been working our way southwest the past week - this is as far south as we will go before heading northwest tomorrow (to Smoky Mountain NP).  There are no Congaree NP campgrounds that will accommodate a trailer so we are in an RV park, a very nice one.  So far, South Carolina has had the best gas prices, as low as 1.70 per gallon for regular at a Shell station.

We spent today day at Congaree NP, which is one gigantic swamp.  It is a lesser known/visited NP so we didn't know a lot about it (other than the fact it is a swamp).  Apparently, alligators are occasionally seen there there but we didn't see any.  We liked it a lot.  I had never walked through a swamp before - it was quiet and eerily beautiful.

We walked along a boardwalk quite a bit of the time because, as you can see, there was a lot of water.  It is amazing that the trees live in water all year long.  The water level is actually low right now.

We didn't see any alligators, but we sure did see mosquitos.  We forgot our repellant so we bought some at the gift shop.  It worked well because Ralph only got bit twice and I didn't get bit at all.  But they sure swarmed around us.  One of the t-shirts they sold said, "I gave blood at Congaree National Park".

Palmetto plants apparently grow well in the swamp.  

This is the remnants of an old still that was used in the swamp during prohibition.

This looks like a river but is actually part of a lake that used to be part of the Congaree River.

We had lunch on a log.  While eating lunch we wondered what it would be like to be there when it was 90 degrees and 90% humidity.  Today it was 73 degrees and very low humidity.

These are the oddest things.  They looked like they were alive, but we couldn't tell.  Not sure how they grow or how they originated.  They were covered with moss.