Why This National Park Doesn't Allow RVs Anymore

Because America is so large and has such a car-heavy culture, sometimes, the best way to explore the country is to get an RV. As it turns out, RVs are not allowed everywhere and some national parks have even begun restricting these vehicles' access into certain areas. For example, Zion National Park will no longer allow RVs on its main highway starting in 2026. Plus, there is another national park that doesn't allow RVs in certain areas – South Carolina's Congaree National Park. Luckily, unlike Zion, Congaree National Park allows RVs on all of its roads. However, at Congaree, RVs cannot park in any of the smaller lots (including the ones at the Bates Ferry Trail and Fork Swamp Trail) and, instead, are only allowed to park in the main visitors center lot.

The reason for this is that Congaree National Park simply doesn't have enough space. In fact, Congaree is one of the smallest national parks in America with only around 26,000 acres. This combined with the growing popularity of the park, in part due to the trend of insect-related travel (Congaree is one of the few places where you can see the synchronous fireflies), which means the park has less space to go around than ever before. Even the main parking lot at Congaree can be difficult for large vehicles and the National Park Service warns on their website that trailers towing cars may need to unhitch the car to successfully maneuver the lot on busy days. Furthermore, RVs are not allowed inside the park at all during large events. Unfortunately, this means that RVs cannot enter Congaree during the famous synchronous firefly display.

On top of the park not allowing RVs in certain parking lots, RV camping is also not allowed within the park. The reason for this is that Congaree National Park contains an old-growth forest that exists in a floodplain. This means that both the forest and around 80% of the park flood around 10 times a year causing the ground to often be wet, unstable, and generally unsuitable for vehicles. Because of this, there are no drive-up campsites at Congaree and even tent campers must park their vehicles in the parking lot and then carry their gear over to their reserved campsite.

Therefore, if you are in an RV and want to camp inside Congaree National Park, you technically can, just not in your RV (as sleeping overnight in any vehicle inside the park is not allowed). Instead, you will have to park your RV in the main lot and then tent camp. If this doesn't sound that great to you, luckily, there are plenty of campgrounds around Congaree National Park that cater to RV campers, including Poinsett State Park, Magnolia Campground, and River Bottom Farms Family Campground. Don't let the lack of RV sites inside this national park stop you from enjoying the beautiful flooded forest or the spectacular fall foliage views at Congaree!