On our way back to Charlotte from Charleston, we decided to visit Congaree National Park, as it is only slightly out of the way. And we love National Parks.
We arrived at lunchtime and so we began with a picnic lunch at the Visitor’s center.
We had planned to do the 2.5 mile boardwalk trail which leaves from the visitor’s center. There is a self-guided tour that you can do as part of this trail, the brochure has lots of interesting information about the natural and cultural history of Congaree. You could even see an old whiskey still, left in the same spot that it has been in since prohibition.
Initially, we hadn’t planned on bringing our stroller (we’re trying to raise hikers after all!) But, it became apparent after 30 seconds that we would not be able to do it without the stroller and still have our sanity intact at the end. So Jonathan and the twins walked back to the car to retrieve it.
One of the draws of Congaree, aside from the beautiful landscape, is the opportunity to see lots of wildlife. We saw a caterpillar almost immediately. And everyone just about lost their minds. We quickly realized that there were caterpillars EVERYWHERE, we saw a ton of them on the boardwalk handrail.
A snake eating a frog. Logan was very sad about the frog. For the rest of the day, whenever we were counting how many creatures we saw, the kids always referred to this as the ‘ex-frog’ 
Fortunately, it didn’t take too long before we saw a frog that was live and well. 
Logan with the frog. 
A Skink! 
Trying to look at the skink. 
A different species of caterpillar 
Another frog 
Shiny Lizard 
Green Lizard! 
The twins loved the caterpillars
We also saw lots of lizards, a few frogs, and a fair number of snakes. The kids loved it.
And of course, the landscape itself was also incredibly beautiful. Congaree mostly lies in a floodplain and had experienced flooding fairly recently, so everything was lush and green.
The kids definitely tired a little more quickly today. For one thing, we did a lot this weekend. Plus, it was pretty warm (80s) and quite humid. Heat and humidity are rather foreign to our little Pacific Northwest vampires. Hopefully we all get used to it soon!
Eventually, the boardwalk trail leads to a lake. So, we took a nice long break there and enjoyed the view. And we got to see some turtles, a cool bird, and a few water snakes.
Eventually, we made our way back to the Visitor’s center. It took us about 3 hours to complete the entire trail.
Needless to say, we were all very happy to be able to sit in the air-conditioned car. Sitting. Air conditioning. Beautiful things.
This was a great end to our weekend.
