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National Park Mystery Photo 21 Revealed: Congaree National Park "Skeeter Meter"

Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on April 8, 2010 - 1:22am

Congaree National Park can be a buggy place in summer, and park officials go to lengths to warn visitors of mosquito concentrations. Danny Bernstein photos.

While many national parks rightfully can claim miserable concentrations of ravenous mosquitoes in summer months, Congaree National Park actually offers visitors this tongue-in-cheek "skeeter meter" for gauging just how bad things are in the swamps.

Of course, when you look at the companion photo of the park's swamps, it shouldn't come as a surprise that park officials look out for their visitors when it comes to biting bugs.

Contributing writer Danny Bernstein took these photos during a recent trek to Congaree National Park. She visited in March, before the bugs were particularly nasty.

Comments

Submitted by tomp on April 9, 2010 - 3:35pm.

Doh! Finally a mystery photo that I immediately recognize (although I have a photo of the older version circa 1996, not this fancy engraved wooden version), and I'm on travel and miss my chance!

I also have photos of 4-6" of snow on the cypress knees...

Submitted by Bob Janiskee on April 10, 2010 - 5:49am.

At Congaree, most visitors stroll the upper and lower boardwalks, not the ground trails. Even during prime mosquito weather, those boardwalks are unlikely to be swarming with mosquitoes. When I was actively volunteering at CONG and bringing students there on field trips, I spent a lot of time on both the upper and lower boardwalks. There were so few mosquitoes that I didn't even bother to use repellent.