Oh, look at how gorgeous all these cypress trees are.

They have these funny little things called mes.

Contrary to popular belief, trees don't have legs.

Lame.

My name is Hyatt Mamoun.

I am a wildlife filmmaker from the Deep South.

And today I've got a time machine.

And I'm taking this back a couple of eons.

One of South Carolina's oldest sports.

A place right out of Jurassic Park.

In the Wild, Wild South.

Deep in the heart of South Carolina lies a land that takes us back in time.

Today I'm taking y'all with me.

On an expedition deep into a primordial forest with towering giants and critters that echo our prehistoric past.

This is Congaree, one of America's least visited and most mysterious national parks.

We're here in Congaree National.

What was that?

Did you all hear that?

There's a lot of snapping, and birds talking.

Right now I have an amazing shot, of the adorbale American Alligator.

And I look at his long snout and white golden eye and look at those scales on his back.

Now, I've seen these guys get ten, 12, even 15 plus feet.

So this guy is pretty small for as far as American alligators go.

He's got to be about maybe four feet.

But on your screen, he probably looks like a moose.

Doesn't this guy truly looks like a modern day dinosaur?

The South has an incredible amount of reptile biodiversity.

South Carolina alone is home to over 140 different species.

And Congaree is a full house with all sorts of them, big and small.

Y'all look at the gorgeous colors on this rat snake.

Look at how he is perfectly camouflaged.

He's got this amazing pattern on his back that looks like.

Come on.

He's got this forked tongue that helps him sense what's in front of him.

He actually smells with that tongue.

A snake starts now with their tongue.

The way you and I smell their noses.

They actually pull particles out of the air and into a specialized smell.

An organ on the roof of their mouth where they can analyze those particles to figure out what it is they're smelling.

And I bet you he can tell that we're here right now watching him.

He is adorbale.

This place is extremely special because it has so much biodiversity.

In fact, this is the United States largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest, and it's one of the highest temperate deciduous forest canopies in the whole entire world.

This forest is home to towering giants.

In fact, it has the tallest examples of 15 different tree species.

Ya'll look at how huge this one is.

This is a loblolly pine, and she has over 160ft tall.

I've seen a lot of pines in my life, but I've never seen one this big.

And you know what?

She has some real interesting neighbors to show you.

I just got to do a quick change of footwear.

Y'all look at how gorgeous all these cypress trees are.

They have these funny little things called knees.

That's a knee.

That's a knee.

That's a knee.

There's a knee, there's a knee.

There's hundreds of knees.

And actually, these aren't knees at all, because contrary to popular belief, trees don't have legs.

Lame.

Now, scientists have been researching them for years, and they have no idea what they're for.

One theory is that these were kind of like snorkels getting oxygen for the water log roots.

Another theory is that they work to help stabilize a tree in the soft ground.

But my favorite theory is that they all these upward facing spikes to help defend against large, lumbering prehistoric herbivores trying to get their leaves.

Just one of these huge trees supports an incredible amount of life.

And you can't go far without hearing one of the most hardworking residents.

The finding you gotta look up.

Y'all check this out.

This is a great example of how woodpeckers hunt.

You can see here they just go in before they land on the tree, and they take their beak and hit it like a hammer.

Boom boom boom boom boom.

Looking for little grubs and insects to eat.

Woodpeckers have evolved to withstand an insane amount of force to the noggin.

1400g worth Now that is 14 times what it takes to give a human a concussion.

How do they handle this?

They have some spongy, shock absorbing bone sandwiched between hard bone in their skull, along with a long term that goes around the back of their head to help cushion the blow.

And this guy looks like he went across this whole entire tree.

There's something to eat for everyone here.

From saps and grabs for woodpeckers to nuts for squirrels.

Congaree even serves as the premier rest stop for traveling royalty.

Monarch butterflies make their incredible journey from as far north as Canada.

All the way on down to Mexico.

And this forest makes a perfect place for a pit stop and a snack.

There are so many monarch butterflies feeding right here.

They're migrating down through South Carolina all the way down to Mexico for the winter.

And they're huge.

They're almost as big as my hand.

And you can see them now feeding on all these tiny little white flowers.

And some of them are so big that they're too heavy to sit on the flower and fall right off.

And the way they feed is actually really, really weird.

They have this long nose that they poke around into the flower, and the proboscis itself is kind of like a straw.

So it's actually hollow.

They don't have a jaw like you and me.

They have a straw for the nose.

So they're drinking the nectar out of the flower.

And there's a ton, ton, ton of flowers around here for them.

It's like a butterfly buffet.

Exploring these woods really makes you feel like you just crawled out of the primordial soup yourself just five minutes ago, with scenes that have gone completely unchanged for millions of years.

But once you spend a little time to get to know this forest, it reveals itself.

It becomes less of a mystery.

So come on, get outside.

Because even in a forest this ancient, there's always something new to discover.

And if that is an exciting, I don't know what is.