The wetlands bordering the Congaree River southeast of Columbia was made part of the National Park Service in 1976 as Congaree Swamp National Monument. In 2003, it was upgraded to a National Park, and the "Swamp" was dropped from the title. It is still a swamp, but it is interesting and beautiful, and teeming with life. However, it's still small as far as National Parks go.
There's on one fairly small visitor center, and a few primitive campsites. The main drawback to the park is the limited ways to really get out and see it. There are very few roads through it, and the primary trail, the boardwalk trail, is a loop over 2 and a half miles long. They do offer canoe tours down some of the creeks, but only on Sundays, and those fill up weeks in advance.
The kids and I walked the boardwalk trail, which took over an hour, and all of us looked at the nicely done but somewhat small exhibits, and we watched a 10 minute film about the park. The Junior Ranger program was typical of a National Park, where the kids had to do a handful of fairly easy activities out of about a dozen in the packet.
The wetlands bordering the Congaree River southeast of Columbia was made part of the National Park Service in 1976 as Congaree Swamp National Monument. In 2003, it was upgraded to a National Park, and the "Swamp" was dropped from the title. It is still a swamp, but it is interesting and beautiful, and teeming with life. However, it's still small as far as National Parks go. 
The kids and I walked the boardwalk trail, which took over an hour, and all of us looked at the nicely done but somewhat small exhibits, and we watched a 10 minute film about the park. The Junior Ranger program was typical of a National Park, where the kids had to do a handful of fairly easy activities out of about a dozen in the packet.
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