Locat­ed about twen­ty miles south of the city, Con­ga­ree Nation­al Park, the nation’s newest, does­n’t even have admis­sion gates yet, leav­ing you the plea­sure of fed­er­al­­ly-pro­­tec­t­ed land­scape with­out the price. One of the last old-growth forests in the south­east, the swamp actu­al­ly isn’t a swamp at all, but a flood­plain of the near­by Con­ga­ree Riv­er. Wild pigs, deer, turkey, alli­ga­tors, and oth­er wildlife abound, the largest cypress­es in the world are locat­ed here. The cypress knees and tupe­lo trees cre­ate some­thing that looks like a set of Lord of the Rings. The board­walk is sev­er­al miles long and hand­i­capped acces­si­ble, the park con­tains great hik­ing trails and even the oppor­tu­ni­ty for canoe­ing (rent in Colum­bia). The vis­i­tor’s cen­ter has use­ful infor­ma­tion and a help­ful staff, but if you’re plan­ning on return­ing to your car after five, be sure to leave it in the overnight park­ing lot near the entrance of the park.