The Different Parkway

A highway journey alongside the Natchez Hint Parkway, which stretches 444 miles throughout the Deep South, reveals fascinating historic websites and enjoyable woodland adventures.

I used to be strolling by means of the blufftop park within the French colonial city of Natchez in southwest Mississippi. Far under, the Mississippi River ran excessive and muddy from current storms. I paused on the railing to see by means of some mounted binoculars. All over the place I seemed, the woodland foliage was blooming with the colourful colours of early spring. 

At the moment, Natchez is a little-known river city on the southern terminus, aka Milepost 0, of the 444-mile Natchez Hint Parkway. Managed by the Nationwide Park Service, this scenic roadway follows a historic Native American path throughout Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee on its option to Nashville. 

In contrast to its mountain sibling, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the NTP winds by means of rolling foothills. Whereas it’s principally identified for historical past and cultural websites, there are additionally mountain climbing trails, biking routes, and close by park items. Plus, the NTP sees lower than half the annual guests, round six million, in comparison with over 16 million for the adventurous BRP, which continues to incrementally reopen after harm from Hurricane Helene. I’d lengthy been interested by how the NTP compares, so final spring I set off with my camper to seek out out. 

Natchez, Mississippi

Earlier than driving north, I spent just a few days exploring Natchez, which was one of the vital vital early settlements within the Mississippi Valley. On the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, a state-run archeological park and museum, I discovered concerning the highly effective tribe that dominated these bluffs earlier than European contact introduced devastating ailments. Outdoors, I wandered round three preserved mounds, primarily flattop earthen pyramids, with the biggest initially housing a ceremonial temple. Numerous mounds had been constructed by Mississippian tribes all through the area, and plenty of surviving examples might be discovered alongside the NTP.  

At Fort Rosalie in Natchez Nationwide Historic Park, I seen the blufftop ruins of the French settlement established in 1716. After a decade of relative peace, rising tensions led to a cruel battle. The French and their allies prevailed, and the Natchez had been pressured to flee as refugees. The French had been later defeated by the British, after which the US assumed management after the Revolutionary Struggle. This ushered within the plantation-era throughout the South, making Natchez a business hub for steamboats, slavery, and cotton. Additionally preserved by Natchez NHP is the notorious Forks of the Highway slave market and a number of other historic houses from the antebellum period.

Along with strolling the blufftop paths, I wandered across the colonial downtown, which is regularly used as a filming location for films set in French Louisiana. Afterward, I ended by the Natchez Brewing Firm for a wonderful calzone and pilsner. 

Southern Natchez Hint Parkway

My southernmost camp was in a hardwood forest at Natchez State Park close to Milepost 11. Round right here, there’s a cluster of worthwhile websites. Loess Bluff at Milepost 12.3 is a cliff-face of the darkish wind-blown soil that blankets this area, giving rise to the Natchez Bluffs and the smooth filth that the Natchez Hint passes by means of. Simply down the highway at Milepost 15.5 is Mount Locust, a historic French residence and farm. 

One among my favourite spots on the complete parkway was Emerald Mound, an ancestral Natchez web site just a few miles west of Milepost 10.3. Rising between three and 6 tales excessive, with a base 770 ft lengthy and 430 ft large, that is the second-largest platform mound in the US. The most important is Monks Mound at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Web site in Illinois. Cahokia is spectacular, however it’s additionally surrounded by trade and an interstate. In the meantime, Emerald Mound is in the course of empty woodlands.

Driving north one morning, I discovered myself in the course of a caravaning Airstream membership. When the lead driver got here throughout a fallen tree blocking the parkway, the chummy members went to work with an electrical chainsaw, clearing the trail in 20 minutes. I ended up becoming a member of this group at Sunken Hint (Milepost 41.5) for a stroll by means of a trench worn into the loess by centuries of vacationers. 

Subsequent got here Rocky Springs at Milepost 54.8, a brief hike to a frontier townsite from the early days of the US. Again then, boatmen known as Kaintucks transported items down the Mississippi River on makeshift flatboats, which had been offered off as lumber at markets like this one. Then the Kaintucks walked north alongside the Natchez Hint and did all of it once more. 

For those who’re keen to enterprise an hour off the parkway, contemplate Vicksburg Nationwide Army Park. This NPS unit homes the usCairo, an ironside that was sunk throughout the Civil Struggle and buried in mud for over a century earlier than being raised. You’ll be able to stroll aboard the reassembled Cairo and tour a captivating museum displaying quite a few artifacts recovered from the wreckage.

Jackson, Mississippi

My second campground on the NTP was at LaFleur’s Bluff State Park, a novel lakeside spot throughout the shadow of downtown high-rises in Jackson. Metropolis highlights embrace the state-owned Two Mississippi Museums. One is targeted on regional historical past, from Native People to the current. The opposite focuses on civil rights, with a sequence of highly effective and eye-opening reveals about abuses towards African People, together with slavery and segregation. The brutality of the Jim Crow period is exemplified on the close by Medgar and Merlie Evers Dwelling Nationwide Monument, the place civil rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated in his entrance yard by a white supremacist in 1963. 

In distinction to its heavier historical past, fashionable Jackson has a number of outdoorsy highlights. The Museum Path is a paved multiuse path that leads from LaFleur’s Bluff State Park previous the Pure Historical past Museum and its nature trails to the Belhaven Path System, a brief community of singletrack within the woods close to downtown. Further enjoyable biking might be discovered north of the town on the Richland Trails, a singletrack MTB park. Or the Chisa Foka Path is a 10-mile paved multiuse path maintained by the NPS and linking up a number of parkway websites, together with Barnett Reservoir and the Choctaw Company.  

After using these native trails over a number of days, I discovered wonderful dinner choices round Jackson. Fertile Floor Beer Co. is a pleasant hangout spot serving a wonderful Forgotten Area IPA. Pig and Pint affords spectacular BBQ amidst an out of doors/indoor setting of a renovated diner. Plus, the Iron Horse Grill was a blast, serving scrumptious southern dishes throughout reside blues performances on sure nights.  

Central NTP and Tupelo, MS

Persevering with north, I ended at Cypress Swamp (Milepost 122) and crossed a boardwalk to hike a piece of unpaved path. That is certainly one of many shorter and longer sections of the Previous Hint and Natchez Hint Nationwide Historic Path that parallels the parkway. Subsequent, the Busby Lookout at Milepost 193.1 was…fascinating. The view from the highest of the hill was the identical because the view from the roadway under: infinite shades of inexperienced.  

I made a decision to push on early to Davis Lake Campground in Tombigbee Nationwide Forest close to Milepost 244, which was my favourite camp on my journey. After kayaking across the clearwater reservoir, I checked out the close by Owl Creek Mounds, a smaller ancestral web site. 

Driving to Tupelo for dinner, I ended at Milepost 261.8 for the interpretive stroll across the former Chickasaw Village Web site. On the town, I handed by Tupelo Nationwide Battlefield, an NPS monument that’s mainly a grassy avenue nook. Then I ended on the intriguing Queen’s Reward Meadery, which makes wine from honey. The pleasant proprietor Jerri poured me a number of tasters. I preferred the few dry choices, particularly the Riesling, and I agreed to return sometime with my spouse, who would love their many candy varietals and smoothie concoctions. 

Nonetheless, the enjoyable night was lower brief when Jerri’s husband known as. A twister watch had simply gone to a warning. A tornado had touched down close to New Albany. One other panhandle hook, the identical storm sample that had raised the Mississippi River and dropped timber, was whipping throughout the Deep South. 

Driving south at the hours of darkness, I glimpsed towering thunderclouds to the west, briefly illuminated by lightning flashes. After I arrived, the campground was additionally pitch black. Everybody was inside their RVs with the facility off, watching the storm. I adopted the radar on my cellphone, planning to drag my camper east if wanted. Fortunately, the squall line stayed northwest earlier than breaking apart. 

The subsequent day, I rode my gravel bike by means of the luckily delicate aftermath—principally downed branches and timber—on the paved Tanglefoot Path. I did about 50 miles complete as an out-and-back between Algoma and New Albany. The agricultural hills on the southern part had been my favourite, whereas the northern path had extra neighborhoods and cities. I obtained in some dash coaching, in each instructions close to Freeway 278, after I was chased by three significantly aggressive canine. 

Northern NTP: Alabama and Tennessee

Persevering with north, I ended to view reveals on the Parkway Customer Heart at Milepost 266. This was adopted by the spectacular Pharr Mounds, grassy pyramids in a golden sea of untamed wheat at Milepost 286.7. I continued off parkway for a short keep at JP Coleman State Park in Tennessee, which was inside hanging distance of Shiloh Nationwide Army Park. The subsequent day, I began on the NPS museum, which tells the story of this pivotal battle and a Civil Struggle that led to the abolishment of slavery. Then I biked the battlefield highway and walked by means of an ancestral mound web site rising above the Tennessee River. 

The morning that I returned to the parkway, drifting fog enshrouded the long-lasting Colbert Ferry Bridge, discovered on the 30-mile stretch by means of Alabama. Past that, the brief hike to Rock Spring at Milepost 330.2 was my favourite path alongside the NTP, driving residence the significance of water sources throughout early overland journey by foot and horse. 

My closing camp was one other brief off-parkway keep, this time at David Crocket State Park in Tennessee. I biked a number of park trails and roads, coaching my legs for an upcoming biking journey with pals. I additionally walked a preserved part of the Path of Tears, utilized in early nineteenth century when the U.S. Authorities forcibly relocated regional tribes just like the Chickasaw and Choctaw to Oklahoma. 

Whereas driving the northern parkway, limestone bluffs appeared, and the panorama grew to become more and more hillier. I ended at Grinders Stand (Milepost 385.9), a reproduction log cabin and NPS museum on the web site of the historic inn the place Meriwether Lewis mysteriously died in 1809. 

Just some years after Lewis and Clark’s expedition throughout the Louisiana Buy, the well-known explorer stopped for the night time right here on his option to meet with President Jefferson in Washington. The subsequent morning, he was discovered lifeless in his room from two gunshot wounds, one every in his abdomen and head. With Lewis identified to be more and more troubled by melancholic melancholy, the prevailing view stays suicide. Nonetheless, some observers have questioned if Lewis may need been murdered. 

As I pushed onward towards Milepost 444 close to Nashville, I got here throughout scattered cyclists from a supported group trip. The northern parkway is well-liked for highway biking. My closing cease was at Leiper’s Fork, a historic village exterior Franklin, Tenn. I had an superior celebratory meal on the beloved Fox and Hen, identified for its meals, drinks, and reside music. My 10-day highway journey alongside the Natchez Hint Parkway had been a shocking success—a mixture of mellower adventures and interesting historical past.