Congaree National Park Fall 2010
odd stumps in the swamp
After two kick ass Phish shows in Charleston, SC I decided to take a quick hike before starting the long approximately 8 hour drive home on Sunday. Close to were I was staying there were not many options that I was interested in. I found all sorts of small historical trails and even a few long ones along one of the rivers. The short ones would have been great if I was visiting and only wanted to spend an hour or so taking in the sites. As for the 30 mile river walk, this would have taken all day to hike just one sections of it. What I wanted was a happy medium between the 1 hour hike and the 10 hour excursion. After much searching I couldn’t find a close enough park to Charleston and decided on Congaree National Park just outside of Columbia.
From Charleston to the park entrance was going to take just over 2 hours so I had to get an early start from the hotel. The sun was just starting to come up when I left in the early morning for the park, frost head yet to melt away. After partying late into the night for the Saturday Phish show I was not much interested in getting up early. But I knew getting to the park and hiking was going to be worth it. Considering the drive I had to make from the park to home getting an early start was essential.
Most of the drive was down interstate 26, so it offered little in the way of scenery. However when I got off the highway onto Rt 601 things immediately turned rural. Most of what I passed were small towns, solitary homes in the middle of nowhere and lots of cotton fields. By now it was almost harvest time, the plants were dead and the cotton bulbs were about the only thing left on the plant. As I drove I wondered what the fields would have looked like in the middle of summer. Finally in the backwoods of South Carolina I came upon the entrance to the park just before 10am.
