We decided to get away from the cold Virginia weather for a day and headed south to S. Carolina for a family trip to the temple in Columbia, to visit some friends, and for a field trip to the Congaree National Park.
Clarissa and Krystal can't contain their excitement about our boardwalk adventure.
Congaree is most known for being one of the largest old-growth flood plain forests in the U.S. It is full of trees like the tupelo and cypress that are flood tolerant. The cypress trees are among the largest in deciduous forests and their bases can be as wide as 6 feet. This tree shows the cypress "knees" that are part of the root system, but stick up out of the forest floor. It is not known if they are only acting as anchors or if they also function as snorkels for the tree.
This pictures shows how silly Chris can be, as well as how high the flooding can get, see the line of dark coloring on the trees in the background? That is how high the flood waters rise, about 6 feet or so from the ground.
The trees in the Congaree are deciduous, losing their leaves in the winter. Although the trees look mostly dead near the base, they are teeming with the life of spanish moss growing in the tops of the trees.
This part of the forest reminded us of all the movies with swamps in them that we've seen like The Princess and the Frog or The Rescuers. We were glad that we chose to visit this swamp in the winter when the Skeeter Meter was at it's lowest. We enjoyed our visit so much that it prompted a unit study at home on the different types of forests and the life that lives in them.
We decided to get away from the cold Virginia weather for a day and headed south to S. Carolina for a family trip to the temple in Columbia, to visit some friends, and for a field trip to the Congaree National Park.
Clarissa and Krystal can't contain their excitement about our boardwalk adventure.
Congaree is most known for being one of the largest old-growth flood plain forests in the U.S. It is full of trees like the tupelo and cypress that are flood tolerant. The cypress trees are among the largest in deciduous forests and their bases can be as wide as 6 feet. This tree shows the cypress "knees" that are part of the root system, but stick up out of the forest floor. It is not known if they are only acting as anchors or if they also function as snorkels for the tree.
This pictures shows how silly Chris can be, as well as how high the flooding can get, see the line of dark coloring on the trees in the background? That is how high the flood waters rise, about 6 feet or so from the ground.
The trees in the Congaree are deciduous, losing their leaves in the winter. Although the trees look mostly dead near the base, they are teeming with the life of spanish moss growing in the tops of the trees. 
This part of the forest reminded us of all the movies with swamps in them that we've seen like The Princess and the Frog or The Rescuers. We were glad that we chose to visit this swamp in the winter when the Skeeter Meter was at it's lowest. We enjoyed our visit so much that it prompted a unit study at home on the different types of forests and the life that lives in them.
2 comments:
Very interesting, we don't have things like that. I hear there is an amazing forest in Washington that resembles a rain forest, it's one of those places I'd really like to go, but might never get to :)
Yeah, we read about the forest in Washington, looks pretty cool.
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