Columbia, SC

As we continue on our journey to visit as many National Parks as possible, we put Columbia on our schedule in order to see the Congaree National Park. I had never heard of this park before researching our route, but it looked beautiful from the pictures and I was excited to do some hiking in a park after so many days of being chased off beaches by the rain in Florida. When we stopped at the visitor center at the park to get our bearings and to talk with the park rangers about the best places to hike, we saw that most of their souvenirs had something to do with a mosquito. They had stuffed mosquitoes, t-shirts that read "I gave blood at Congaree," and magnets of the mosquito meter. How bad could it be, really???? HAHAHAHAHA. For anyone visiting this park at this time of the year, I would highly recommend a bath in 100% deet to start your day. Then pop a deet lozenge every few minutes during the drive to the park and finally carry a spray bottle with 100% deet in it that you spray on every inch of exposed skin for the entire visit to the park. It's really that bad. The funny part was the rangers had the scale set to a 4 out of 6. I asked about the 6 and they said it was so bad they were miserable inside. The park is a flat flood plain with some of the largest old growth hardwoods in the world. The cypress knees were cool, but the attempt to hike was cut short by the swarm of mosquitos and we were glad to get back to the car and put the park in the rear view mirror. I'm glad we visited the park, but we won't come back unless the mosquito meter is running at a 1 or 2.