Along the meandering Congree River sits a National Park that only the locals seem to know about. The newest of the National Parks (joining the ranks in 2003), Congree protects over 24,000 acres of the only old-growth bottomland forest remaining in the US. As a floodplain forest it was left untouched due to the difficulty retrieving timber in swamp land. We walked the boardwalk trails through the wetlands and two other trails that take hikers past the parks two lakes and Cedar Creek. As I walked the trail the thought occurred to me that the sticks on the trail looked like snakes and then one of the sticks actually was a snake. We gently coxed him of the path and went carefully on our way. And our 7 miles of hiking today only scratched the surface of the park which has many more miles of both hiking and canoe trails running throughout the system. Last night was the Super Moon and the park held it's annual Owl Prowl. It was warm enough to walk the two miles in shorts and with the moon at it's closest to the earth, it was bright enough to see the shadows cast late into the night by the huge stands of Loblolly Pines and Cypress. We heard Barred Owls, frogs and watched the fire flies dance in the tree tops, what a wonderful evening. So much to like about this park and best of all the park and dry camping is all free!
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