April 13th - Start of the Natchez Trace

We left Natchez and started up the Natchez Trace. It goes all the way to Nashville, Tennessee, passing through the north-western corner of Alabama covering 444 miles in it's length.
The most celebrated travelers of the Natchez Trace were farmers and boatmen from the Ohio River regions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky floating supplies down to ports in Natchez and New Orleans at the beginning of the 1800s. Regardless of where they came from, they were collectively known as "Kaintucks." But the story of the Natchez Trace is not just about the Kaintucks. The Old Trace ran through the heart of Choctaw and Chickasaw country. It also ran through a series of mounds that had been built by people over the previous 2000 years and through a diverse terrain of swamps, rivers, and rolling hills that provided significant obstacles for travelers.

Click the link below for a map of the Natchez-Jackson portion of the Trace.

http://www.nps.gov/natr/planyourvisit/upload/map1.pdf


Our first stop on the Trace was at a marker set at a place where you can walk on a part of the original Trace. It's really remarkable that portions of the Trace have been maintained in their original state.


The largest of the Indian mounds along the Trace and the second largest in the US.


Flowers along the Parkway.
Red Clover, White Daisies and ??

This portion of the Trace was worn down so that you actually end up walking in a trench. Apparently in areas like this, the ground was soft enough to wear away as the countless numbers of travellers passed through over the years.
I'm inside the sunken Trace area and Clive is standing up on the rim.
This little lady appeared with her "southern welcome" and escorted us to the entry to the Sunken Trace. She had beautiful manners and was every bit the southern belle.