Best trails in Congaree National Park
On the Congaree River, this park is the largest portion of old-growth floodplain forest left in North America. Some of the trees are the tallest in the Eastern US, and the Boardwalk Loop is an elevated walkway through the swamp. Canoeing and fishing are also popular in this park.
Top trails
Visitor info
No entrance fee or pass is required.
Join millions of people who enjoy our National Parks with the "America the Beautiful" National Park & Federal Recreational Lands Pass, otherwise known as the Interagency Annual Pass. The pass is valid for a year's worth of visits from the month of purchase at more than 2,000 federal recreation sites across the country.
Congaree National Park does not charge an entrance fee, but the Interagency Access Pass allows pass holders to receive a 50% discount on other park amenities, such as camping.
The Harry Hampton Visitor Center is accessible to visitors using mobility equipment or strollers and has wheelchair accessible restrooms and drinking fountains.
A braille brochure, one standard-sized wheelchair, two large wheelchairs, and three Hippocampe all-terrain wheelchairs are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. Kayak adaptations, including a back-of-hand adaptation, a wrist slide adaptation, and a paddle pivot, are also available on a first-come-first-serve basis. Please call ahead or ask at the visitor center to make a reservation for equipment. If you are scheduled for a canoe tour and need an adaptation, please let the park know 24 hours before your tour.
Additional information about accessibility at Congaree National Park can be found on their website: https://www.nps.gov/cong/planyourvisit/accessibility.htm.
The Harry Hampton Visitor Center is accessible to visitors using mobility equipment or strollers and has wheelchair accessible restrooms and drinking fountains.
The picnic area near the first parking area has 4 wheelchair accessible tables with packed, level paths and surfaces.
Longleaf Campground Campground has 1 individual wheelchair accessible camping site ( #1) and wheelchair accessible vault toilets.
Service animals must be on-leash throughout the park.
Trail reviews for Congaree National Park
First time to visit Congaree National Park and it was exactly what I expected. A lovely quiet walk through a flooded forest with Loblolly Pines. Reaching as high as 160 feet! The boardwalk part of this hike is fairly fairly simple. Once the boardwalk ends where the construction begins you take a right and you head out on this trail which will give you a lot more seclusion than the boardwalk does. Most visitors here seem to be flocking to just the boardwalk area. Find one of these trails that ends at the boardwalk and continues on into what would be called the backcountry here. The trail is flat as can be, I don’t know why my elevation said I had 1000 feet there was nowhere near that, and is fairly wide and is soft dirt with no rocks to trip on. The only thing you’re going to trip on our roots from the trees. Lots of birds singing in the air and woodpeckers searching for grubs in the trees. I didn’t see any other animals like snakes, gators, bears, deer, et cetera. The only other mammal I saw were squirrels everywhere. I ended the trail by doing the firefly trail which was quite interesting as the fireflies were out hovering around the ground and making all sorts of noise that I thought they were bees, but it’s fireflies. Kind of cool to see them during the daytime. I gave this trail five stars because it’s everything that a national park trail should be when it’s trying to educate you as to why this place was designated and national park. This trail gives you a very good sense of the environment, the vegetation, the creeks and rivers and swamps,and wildlife such as birds.
This was our first time visiting Congaree National Park and we had the most wonderful experience. We took it slow and did the easy boardwalk trail. Unfortunately, due to recent rain, the trail was half through under water. We took a side trail (Firefly) to get in a few more views of the park. Definitely hope to come back and do some of the more intense trails in the future!
Congaree National Park is a beautiful wilderness park! Fully accessible to everyone.
Trail was very buggy and lots of spiderwebs. Also, the trail was overgrown. The mosquitoes here are huge! I'm guessing not a lot of people have been on this trail for a while since summers tend to be mosquito season, hence the tall plants/weeds on the trail itself not being trampled. We took a short detour to view the General Greene Tree, and that part of the trail was very muddy. The view of the Congaree river was nice, despite the bugs. Bring lots of bug spray and cover up if going here in the summer. When we stopped by the Congaree National Park Visitor Center, the mosquito meter was a 6 out of 6! it's a war zone out there with the mosquitoes!
Congaree national Park got here and must’ve rained a lot. All the trails were closed except for a few so I got the closest hike in and then added a couple bits and pieces of other trails area.
Long hike, took us almost 5 hrs total, but we stopped a lot and sat to eat lunch by the Congaree River. It was tough for my 11yr old son but he made it. We saw a lot of wildlife - feral hogs, a snapper turtle, a box turtle, wild turkeys, a snake, and the 5 striped skink. The trail isn't well kept with probably a dozen down trees but they were easy for us to step over or duck under. GPS was very helpful in a couple spots where the trail was difficult to follow. It was virtually empty when we went on a Monday 10am, only passed a few hikers the whole time on the river trail. Most people stick to the easier boardwalk trail or closer to it.