Natchez Trace Parkway commemorates Old Natchez Trace, a popular trail supposedly created by American Indians and later used by European explorers. It links the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. The parkway today runs 444 miles.
I was expecting something slightly different than I experienced. I did not know it was going to be a freeway (mind you, it's still a 50 mph speed limit). You could set your cruise control at mile 1 and not take it off until the parkway cessation. If it crossed a highway it did so above or below it, never intersecting. I also only saw one road off to the side. Most of the time I could not see past trees on either side of the road. From the negative side, I had expected to see the vegetation change a little more. In Utah, you can walk for 10 miles and experience a completely different landscape. Here, the 350 miles I was on the trail looked essentially the same.But it was a nice, relaxing and pretty drive. And if it's pretty and unchanging, well, that's not all that bad. The trail is on the lands of each of the title states, meaning by the time I was done, I had visited States 28, 29 and 30.
I stopped about 100 miles north of Jackson to camp for a night and finished the trail the next day. To my surprise, the camping was free! It was a nice campsite too, although I forgot to take a photo.The cooler things I was able to see was the burial place of Meriwether Lewis and the Tennessee River (I took an hour or so to picnic on the river bank).
Natchez Trace Parkway Album
Next Post: Kentucky (Mammoth Cave National Park)
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