A Trace of Natchez Trace

A pair of mules graze along the modern Natchez Trace

If you don’t know about the Natchez Trace Parkway, imagine driving through a park that is 444 miles long. Imagine a trail that has been used for hundreds of years first by animals, then by people walking and riding horses, then carts and wagons pulled by mules, and now, by private motorists and bicyclists. Commercial signs and even commercial vehicles are nowhere in sight. The view is only the fall foliage, an occasional animal or bird, and the narrow two-lane road that carries few other travelers. 

Markers interpret historic portions of the Trace

The Trace was the preferred route for American bison migrations and a shared trading trail for the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. Meriwether Lewis died on the Trace on his way to turn over his journals to President Jefferson in 1810. The trail was improved during the War of 1812 to give postal riders a quick way to communicate; it served as a return trail for the Kaintuck boatmen who floated wood, furs, and grain down the Tennessee River and walked back home again. In the 1930’s bits of the historic Trace that could be acquired were surveyed and dedicated as a memorial under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service and the building of the road began. It was finally finished in 2005 and now stretches all the way from Natchez Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee.

More bicyclists than cars passed us as we enjoyed the 50-mph speed limit and the quiet of the drive. We pulled off several times to explore nature trails built alongside the road. We slept one night in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the birthplace of Oprah Winfrey, and another at Pickwick Landing State Park in Tennessee.  Along the way we explored cypress swamps, examined Native American burial mounds and watched wild turkeys on the roadside. The historical and cultural aspects of this National Scenic Byway and All American Road are surpassed only by its natural, archeological and recreational attributes!

Finally we had to leave the Trace to find civilization: a grocery store, an RV park with showers and internet, and the highway north to Kentucky.  We will miss the Trace. We wish there were more roads like this one. We loved it.