Alt Text

Map of Congaree National Park in South Carolina. The park is highlighted in green with the surrounding area in tan, roads shown as mostly dark gray lines, and waterways in blue.

Extended Description

The rippling Congaree River makes up the wide southern border of the park, and the Wateree River runs along the narrow east side, making those boundaries appear ruffled. The Congaree and Wateree Rivers merge at the southeast corner of the park to form Santee River, which runs south. Most of the sites are clustered at the northwest corner of the park. Bluff Road, also labeled State Route 48, brushes against the northwest tip of the park at Bannister Bridge, which has canoe and kayak access, and Old Bluff Road, also labeled County Road 734, branches south from Bluff Road. Old Bluff Road continues east and meets another spur of the park boundary. There, National Park Road splits from Old Bluff Road and travels south past the primitive Longleaf Campground, Longleaf Trail, Bluff Trail, and the primitive Bluff Campground (wilderness) before arriving at Harry Hampton Visitor Center. A square Boardwalk represented with a brown line extends south from the visitor center, where the Firefly and Sims trails begin. South of the Boardwalk are Weston Lake Trail, Oak Ridge Trail, River Trail, and Kingsnake Trail, which all snake through the interior of the park’s western third.

The latter, Kingsnake Trail, travels southeast and then north to meet South Cedar Creek, which has canoe and kayak access and parking, at the northern border of the park. South Cedar Creek Road connects this site with Bluff Road to the north. The Cedar Creek Canoe Trail follows Cedar Creek across the northwest section of the park terminating at South Cedar Creek, which has canoe / kayak access and parking, to the east and Bannister Bridge, which has canoe / kayak access, to the west.

The Norfolk Southern Railway line travels from near the top left corner of the map down and across the map to form a portion of the park boundary, then crosses the park about three-quarters of the way across its length. US Route 601, the only road shown as a red line, travels the height of the map near the right edge, and it bisects through the final quarter of the park to pass by two parking areas, Bates Ferry Trail, Fork Swamp Trail, and Bates Bridge Boat Landing (South Carolina DNR), which has parking and canoe and kayak access. State Route 419, Fort Motte Road, intersects Fort Motte. Country Road 25 continues west from Fort Motte to Bluff and Longleaf Campgrounds, passing Turkey Track Lane, an unpaved road, which leads to Congaree Bluffs Heritage Preserve.

Legend

A scale along the bottom of the map measures distances of 1 and 2 kilometers and 1 and 2 miles. The scale below reads as follows:

Blue dot and number on a lighter blue line for River mileage,

Blue dashed line on lighter blue line for Cedar Creek Canoe Trail, and

Green for NPS property.

Three symbols to the right represent Canoe/kayak access, Parking, and Primitive campground.

Next to these, a small-scale inset map of the park shows the left three-quarters shaded green to represent Wilderness areas, and the rightmost quarter is white, indicating a Non-wilderness area. There are a few small white areas along the northern border of the park as well. Harry Hampton Visitor Center and Longleaf Campground are labeled in one of these white spots, and Bluff Campground is in the green area near here.