Congaree is probably one of the strangest national parks I’ve ever visited. Couple things to mention right off the bat: 1) It’s free to enter and there’s nobody waiting at the entrance gate like typically; 2) There’s probably only a mile or two of roads to drive on and maybe 100 parking spots (so get there early); 3) You don’t need any kind of marker on your car to signify that you’re camping overnight; and 4) if you’re from FL, LA, or GA you’ve probably seen almost everything in this park before in one of your neighborhood swamps. That’s ultimately what I’d say is the biggest letdown about this park for me personally; however, if you’re from the western US or even NE US I’m sure you’d probably be blown away by this park. Probably also worth mentioning that the location of the entrance is very strange...feels like you’re about to pull up to somebody’s house and then you’re just suddenly in the park.
In terms of trails, there’s plenty of great trails to hike on and they do a decent job of marking them but some of the signage is definitely a little confusing so make sure you have a map with you. As for camping, the Bluff campsite is about a 0.7 mile hike out to. I really thought this was a great spot and would definitely come back to camp here again. There’s plenty of space and only 6 or 7 campsites, so never gets too loud. It’s also very close to all the trails so it’s the perfect spot to wake up early and start a day of hiking. It’s in a nice clearing too so you get a great view of the sky at night. So overall I’d say the campground itself is very nice, it’s just a bit of an underwhelming national park and not sure you could really get more than a day or two out of a trip here. Honestly it seems like the park is used more by local residents than outside visitors. Definitely check to make sure it hasn’t flooded by the way before coming as this basically shuts down the entire park.