Leaving New River Gorge National Park on April 11th, we traveled south on I-77 to the third park on our electric road trip: Congaree National Park, near Columbia, South Carolina.
Established as Congaree Swamp National Preserve in 1975, Congaree became a National Park in 2003. With about 146,000 annual visitors, the park preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the United States.
Congaree typically floods several times each year, and as fate would have it, the park was almost totally under water when we arrived.
Congaree typically floods several times each year, and as fate would have it, the park was almost totally under water when we arrived at about 4:00. The park docent explained that the only trail above water was the upper section of the boardwalk. The lower section of the boardwalk was under water, as were all the trails we had planned to hike during our stay at the park. The canoe channels were also unusable because they were indistinguishable from open water.
We spent a couple of hours walking three miles on the boardwalk, getting a feel for the vegetation and feel of the park.
We spent a couple of hours walking three miles on the boardwalk, getting a feel for the vegetation and feel of the park. We saw a woodpecker and a snake and a few squirrels, as well as the signs for the flooded trails we had planned to hike the next day.
After a couple of hours in the park, we quickly realized that we had already seen everything there was to see under the current conditions. So after checking into our hotel in Columbia—the nearest area where you can stay when visiting Congaree—we made some quick adjustments to our schedule and decided to leave the following morning for the Florida Keys, our next destination.
Fun fact about Congaree National Park: the speed limit inside the park is 27 mph—not 25, not 30, but 27.
Lodging
There is no lodging in or near the park, other than camping. The nearest places to stay are in Columbia, South Carolina, about 30 minutes to the northwest. We stayed at the Aloft Columbia Downtown Hotel and were very pleased with our choice. The rooms were modern and clean, and the staff went out of their way to be helpful. They also recommended the Blue Marlin restaurant across the street, and we enjoyed a great seafood meal, with excellent service.
The parking garage for the Aloft has Level 2 chargers, which a Tesla vehicle can use with a small adaptor plug supplied with the car, so we were able to charge overnight and leave for Florida in the morning with a full battery.
Charging
When we left New River Gorge National Park for Congaree, we started without a full battery because there are currently no Destination Chargers in Fayetteville. So as we headed south on I-77 to Columbia, South Carolina and Congaree National Park, we knew we would need a charge fairly early in the day. Before departing Fayetteville, we checked the Tesla Supercharger stations along I-77 and discovered that the Princeton, West Virginia, station has the new Version 3 Superchargers, which operate at 250 KWs. We had used those during earlier road trips and had been impressed with their incredible speed. So we decided to make that our first stop, even though the Tesla navigation recommended a stop further south on I-77 later in the morning.
We learned our second lesson on fast charging—or should we say, relearned the same lesson: listen to what the Tesla navigation advises regarding charging.
Here we learned our second lesson on fast charging—or should we say, relearned the same lesson: listen to what the Tesla navigation advises regarding charging. Because we stopped early, the car did not precondition the battery. As a result, the charging speeds at Princeton were disappointing relative to our expectations for a Version 3 station. We ended up staying for about a half hour for 44 kWhs of charge.
Before we were done with our lunch, the Tesla app on our iPhone informed us that the car was charged and ready to go.
Our second Supercharging stop for lunch, in Charlotte, North Carolina, was much more successful—and typical. We stopped where the Tesla navigation suggested and found the station in a shopping area with multiple restaurants. We walked to a nearby Five Guys and enjoyed some good burgers in an outdoor eating area on a beautiful afternoon. Before we were done with our lunch, the Tesla app on our iPhone informed us that the car was charged and ready to go. This is typical of electric car charging: you don’t stop to charge; you stop for some other activity, usually a meal or a rest stop, and charge while you do the other activity.
Supercharging at Princeton, WV (44 kWh @ $0.29) $12.76
Supercharging at Charlotte, NC (45kWh @ $0.29) $13.05
Total Supercharging $41.07
Hiking Trails and Other Activities in the Park
Boardwalk Trail 3.0 miles
Total Hiking Miles 15.8 miles
Impressions
Congaree is not a typical National Park with grand vistas and iconic landmarks. It is really more of a nature preserve that you can tour. Because it is also a flood plain, and was flooded during our visit, we were quite limited in what we could do and see. We also missed the annual Fire Flies event in May, which is apparently quite popular.
Visit Duration: We had planned to spend an afternoon and a full day at Congaree National Park. With the flooded conditions, we ended up staying only two hours, enough to get a feel for the park. If the park hadn’t been flooded, we had planned two longer hikes on the full day of our visit, but our impression was that they would have been similar to the areas we saw during our brief stay.
The next morning, we left Columbia to head south to Florida, the location of our next three National Parks: Dry Tortugas off Key West, Everglades at the southern tip of the state, and Biscayne Bay near Miami.