Backpack Trail Guide

Trails / South Carolina / Midlands

Congaree National Park Backcountry: Boggy Gut (River) Trail

Congaree National Park, Harry Hampton Visitor Center (about 30 minutes from Columbia)

Congaree National Park protects old-growth forest along the Congaree River, which the Park Service calls the tallest deciduous forest in the United States. Almost 80 percent of the park lies in the floodplain, and the backcountry has no designated campsites: with a free permit, you pick a spot that meets the park’s setbacks.

The Boggy Gut Trail, listed in the park’s 2025 trail guide as the River Trail, is the longest route to the Congaree River itself, at 11.1 miles round trip from the visitor center.

The hike

All of the park’s long trails start at the Harry Hampton Visitor Center, and the park marks them with numbered blazes, including GPS-coordinate blazes about every 0.1 mile. The park’s 2025 guide rates trail #5 difficult and calls it a remote trail to the Congaree River, with “a large sandbar” at low water. It warns that difficult trails can have flooded waterways and large downed trees, that hikers must be completely self-reliant, and that emergency response may take many hours.

Other trails from the visitor center make shorter or alternate trips. The guide describes the Weston Lake Trail (4.5 miles round trip) passing old-growth cypress-tupelo forest along Weston Lake and Cedar Creek, and the Oakridge Trail (7.1 miles) running through old-growth forest with towering oaks and crossing several guts, the park’s term for small creeks. The 12-mile Kingsnake Trail passes cypress-tupelo sloughs near the south bank of Cedar Creek and is another backcountry option; a Sierra Club writer notes it’s recommended for birders.

The park’s trail information page, updated July 2026, lists every trail as open but says Boggy Gut has numerous trees down from recent storms, and that Boggy Gut, Oakridge and Kingsnake may be hard to follow in places. All of them flood periodically.

Timing matters. The Sierra Club writer arrived in February 2023 planning the River or Kingsnake trail, but a ranger said both were impassable. A WhiteBlaze poster recommends going in the coldest weather you can handle, when the river is low; another camped below 20°F and called it magical, with owls and wood ducks and few people. The park says mosquitoes are out from mid-spring to mid-fall.

Backpacker’s 2013 overnight loop started at the South Cedar Creek canoe launch and camped near Cedar Creek after crossing the bridge on the Sims Trail, but some of its rules are out of date (see Camping).

Tips

Camping

Backcountry camping requires a free permit, requested by emailing the park (cong_information@nps.gov) at least 72 hours before your trip, or call 803-776-4396. There are no designated backcountry sites. Camp at least 100 feet from Cedar Creek, Tom’s Creek, Bates Old River, and Wise Lake, and at least 300 feet from the next closest site. Each site is limited to six campers and three structures (hammocks don’t count as structures). Open fires aren’t permitted; stoves are fine. The park treats Longleaf and Bluff campgrounds, and the left bank of Cedar Creek between the Bannister Bridge and Cedar Creek canoe accesses, as frontcountry, so don’t backcountry camp there.

Inside Intel: On WhiteBlaze, one poster says their scout troop prefers the River Trail for backcountry hammock camping, and another found the best backcountry sites along it. Expect wet, muddy ground and plenty of hog sign, they say.

Trail facts

The Lowdown

Muddy ground in the Congaree backcountry:

WhiteBlaze posters warn of wet, muddy ground in the Congaree backcountry, and one camped below 20 degrees. If you're sleeping on the ground on your side, see tips like adding a foam pad under your inflatable.

See the tips →

Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.