Congaree National Park

Fun fact: a national parks trip can be incredibly cost effective, but can also be mind blowingly expensive. I’ll always tell you that national parks are one of the cheapest vacations you can take, but….I might be a little bit wrong sometimes. There, I said it. With a little research, a national parks visit can be affordable. There are so many different options for lodging, camping, backpacking, staying in or outside of the park boundaries...you can make a national park whatever price point you want it to be. But we’re here to talk budget-friendly national parks, so let’s be real, just how expensive is a national parks trip?!

This is a fluid post that I will continually update! Each time I visit a new park I’ll add it here, or update parks that I return to. It’s kind of a fusion highlight reel and future bucket list.

We’re going to take a quick break from national park trip reports, since we’ve hit a milestone—Congaree National Park, which I talked in detail about two weeks ago, was my tenth national park! I thought it would be fun to do a quick overview of my first ten national park visits in chronological order all in one place. It’s been an interesting journey thus far, and I’m hoping you lovely readers might enjoy an honest recap.

If you asked me to choose two words that describe my trip to Congaree National Park, I would probably respond with “logistical nightmare.” I tend to be really good at overcomplicating things, and that skill was loud and proud on this weekend trip! Congaree was also my very first attempt at planning a trip that involved paddling, and let me tell ya, I did a bad job of it. Now I’m here for you to either laugh at my incompetency or learn from my mistakes.