The Natchez Trace Parkway is located in the Coastal Plains region of the states of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as the Appalachian Mountains region of the states of Alabama and Tennessee.

The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 444-mile recreational road and scenic drive through three states, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. It roughly follows the Old Natchez Trace along the same historic travel corridor used by the ancient people, contemporary native people, Kaintucks, European settlers, robbers and thieves, slave traders, soldiers, and future presidents of this country, who all did walk upon the old dirt trail hundreds of years past.

Today, people can enjoy not only a scenic drive but also hiking, biking, horseback riding, and camping along the Natchez Trace parkway. Yes, there are parts of the Old Natchez Trace that can still be found along the Parkway and are still available for visitors to walk upon.

While walking along these old sunken foot paths, the only indication of what century you are in is the two lane ribbon of asphalt cutting through the trees upon which you arrived to find the sunken path.

Still, the Natchez Trace we travel today is not the same as the sunken dirt path the Kaintucks had to travel to bring their crops and wares to market many decades ago, fording rivers and swampy areas, fending for their own well being for weeks on end without any outside support except an occasional stand where one could acquire a meal and a hay stack to sleep against.

Instead, today, the Natchez Trace Parkway is a modern paved highway with concrete bridges spanning the many rivers, as well as a highly developed road system into and out of many cities near by, which are well stocked with anything a person might need to make the modern day journey, including even a cup of hot coffee from the local coffee shop chain.

Begun: 1938

Completed: 2005

Dogwood Valley, Milepost 275.2

Confederates Gravesites, Milepost 269.4

Old Trace, Milepost 221.4

Old Trace, Milepost 198.6

French Camp, Milepost 180.7

Brashear′s Stand, Milepost 104.5

Osburn Stand, Milepost 93.1

Dean Stand, Milepost 73.5

Rocky Spring, Milepost 54.8

Grindstone Ford, Milepost 45.7

Sunken Trace, Milepost 41.5

Potkopinu Northern Trailhead, Milepost 20.0

Potkopinu Southern Trailhead, Milepost 17.0

Mount Locus, Milepost 15.5

Old Trace Exhibit Shelter, Milepost 8.7

Old Town Overlook, Milepost 263.9

Black Belt Overlook, Milepost 251.9

Jeff Busby Little Mountain Overlook, Milepost 193.1

Reservoir Overlook, Milepost 105.6

Bear Creek Mound, Milepost 308.8

Pharr Mounds, Milepost 286.9

Old Town Overlook, Milepost 263.9

Chickasaw Agency, Milepost 242.4

Bynum Mounds, Milepost 232.4

Line Creek, Milepost 213.3

Pigeon Roost, Milepost 203.5

Upper Choctaw Boundary, Milepost 128.4

Boyd Mounds, Milepost 106.9

Choctaw Agency, Milepost 100.7

Lower Choctaw Boundary, Milepost 100.7

Grindstone Ford, Milepost 45.7

Mangum Indian Mound, Milepost 45.7

Emerald Mound, Milepost 10.3

Grand Village of the Natchez Indian Mounds, near Milepost 0

Last night was really cold before midnight, possibly 32 degrees, and I was cold despite having my wool socks on and a second blanket, my wool one. After that, I awoke every two hours to drain my bladder and noticed that after midnight, it was no where near as cold when I first got under the covers. When I arise for the day, I turn on the jammer and while it is warming up, I dress in my fall blues and afterwards, I begin driving south on US 65, which is the Old River Road, but there are not any locations with good views of the Mississippi River. I cross the state line into Louisiana and continue south on US 65, also the Old River Road in this state. A short time later, I cross IH 20 and continue south on US 65.

Then, before noon, I arrive at the east-west route, US 84 and turn left and drive east on US 84 to Natchez, Mississippi when I immediately pull off into the Natchez Visitors Center to check about the availability of parking here overnight. Upon asking one of the workers, I was told that no, not any more because the National Park Service purchased the visitors center and no longer allows that. So I resort to my backup plan, drive north on the Natchez Trace Parkway to Rocky Springs campground at mile marker 54 and camp here for free.

Upon arriving in my space, I get out my cook pot and begin preparing my Repast. Then, at three in the afternoon, I climb back into the jammer to eat and pound keys to update my journal entry.

Up at the alarm, dress, and get out of the jammer to look at the moon and see it to be two hands above the horizon with Venus half way in between.

Then at nine this morning, I leave Tupelo, continue south on the Natchez Trace in search of more evidence and information about the first wayfarers and in only a short time, I stop along the Natchez Trace.

At one stop, I find out that the Natchez Trace is purported to have been walked, or at least crossed by Hernando de Soto during the fall of 1540 in present day Alabama near the Tombigbee River.

Awake at four am and go back to sleep but when my eyes open then next time, I get right up, get of the jammer to walk around it and then get in to drive out of Busby Park and head southwest on the Trace.

Earlier this year, when driving the Trace, I stopped for this photo.