Congaree National Park, S.C.

I’m looking for some information about this park. I want to paddle from Bannisters Bridge to the Cedar Creek Landing. Hear there are alot of portages.

Cedar Creek to Congaree River…
I don’t really know a lot about the section you are talking about but the section from Cedar Creek Landing to the Congaree River is brutal.



I suggest calling the park and asking them.



Scott

If you go when the water is high
you can go over or around almost all of the deadfalls on the upper part. If the water is TOO high, you will not be able to tell where the channel is, and will wander aimlessly through the flooded forest until night falls, when you will be torn apart and eaten by hoot owls, while the mosquitoes fight over the scraps.



The guys at the visitors center can check the water level remotely and tell you what the conditions are.


Lol…sounds like the voice of experience there! Congaree looks like a really nice paddle…be nice to do it before the bad bugs in the spring…



BeachAV8R

Sandyaker, swedge and myself
paddled from Cedar Creek Landing to the Congaree River, then down to Lake Marion over Thanksgiving weekend last year, and the stretch from Cedar Creek to the Congaree had lots of deadfalls and a major logjam where it enters the Congaree!



I sent an email to the Park Ranger describing our trip from hell, and in his reply, he noted that they had just cleared the section from Bannisters Bridge to Cedar Creek landing sometime between the spring and fall of last year. As said above, a call to the park will answer your question best!! At least that section has been cleared recently…the section we paddled hadn’t been touched in a long time…



TrippS

I have never been more mud and
crud covered than after a trip through there, but that was at very low water. It isn’t low now.

Here is a Dec 6,2003 Trip report
on the section from Bannisters bridge to Cedar Creek landing.There is a slide show of the trip also. http://www.palmettopaddlers.org/WebFederal.asp?Cabinet=Trip+Reports&Drawer=Main&Folder=Flatwater+Trips&SubFolder=Cedar+Creek

Will have to do a copy and paste for the link since it it so long.

The Congaree river has not been up enough to fully flood the park since this trip,so I expect conditions are still similar. Like the others said, a call to the ranger is still not a bad idea.