Weston Lake Loop

Weston Lake Loop travels deep into the Congaree bottomland hardwood forest to reach one of the park's oxbow lakes — a curved crescent of still, dark water cut off from the main river channel when the Congaree River changed course over centuries. The forest around Weston Lake is among the finest old-growth bottomland hardwood in the eastern United States, with champion loblolly pines, bald cypress, water tupelo, and sweetgum trees reaching diameters unavailable anywhere else in the region. Many individual trees are the largest of their species on record.

Weston Lake itself is a wildlife concentration point: wood ducks, great blue herons, river otters, and barred owls are year-round residents, and the surrounding swamp forest is excellent habitat for prothonotary warblers — a brilliant yellow bird that nests in cavities over water and uses this bottomland forest as prime breeding territory. The loop is subject to periodic flooding when the Congaree River rises; trail conditions are posted at the visitor center and on the park website. The flooded forest has its own appeal — paddling through the inundated bottomland by canoe is available from Cedar Creek when water levels permit. Mosquitoes can be overwhelming from May through September; insect repellent is essential.