x All Trace, All Day
October
31,
2026
Hotel
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Tupelo to Muscle Shoals
Today we are driving about 150 miles straight up the Trace and halfway to Nashville. Our destination to the north is the Old Trace Drive. This dirt road is one of only two places on the original Old Natchez Road that can be driven today. It’s only 2 1/2 miles, but a really great excuse to drive all day on one of the purtiest roads you’ll see to get there. It’s also fun. On the way to our way back to our hotel in Florence, AL, we’ll visit the Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall (dare your friends to pronounce that consistently).
Parkway Visitor Center
Start your day in the Visitor Center just up the road from the Hotel Tupelo. It’s the big one on the Trace, and very interesting. Short film, timelines, gift shop, etc. Also restrooms if you drank your coffee too late. Opens at 9.
Milepost 270 – Old Trace Info Sign
It’s worth going the 50 steps to wonder where the trail is fricking going. Just look down at the ditch. That’s it. That’s the Old Trace when it was still a footpath. There are also some Confederate gravestones but I’m not sure I see the point in seeing them.
Milepost 327 – Colbert Ferry
Colbert Ferry. George Colbert, a Choctaw, operated a stand and ferry here. The Tennessee River was part of the water route on the Trail of Tears as a result of the Federal Indian Removal Policy. Between 1816 and 1840, tribes between the ceded their lands in over 40 treaties. President Andrew Jackson set a policy to relocate eastern Indians, endorsed by Congress in 1830. Over 100,000 Native Americans were driven west, sometimes by military force, and often treated brutally.
Milepost 375-ish – Old Trace
We will experience the road as it was in the early 1800s. The Natchez Trace Parkway, constructed in the 20th century as a National Park, does not follow the exact historical route of the Old Trace. What was it really like, you wonder?. Voila!
Remember, this route was for hundreds of years a footpath. With maybe a few horses.
Warning: this is a narrow road, and there may be a few low-hanging limbs. Hooray: no RVs.
There are three scenic overlooks to enjoy, especially if we are hitting the fall colors. At the end of this cutoff, there are restrooms on the right. Hey, it’s been a long drive, am I not right?
Take a left and go back south on the Parkway.
Milepost 350 – Dealing with Mudholes
Examples of cuts around mud. If you don’t want to stop (I wouldn’t), here’s what the sign says:
This early interstate road building venture produced a snake-infested, mosquito-beset, robber-haunted, Indian-traveled forest path. Lamented by the pious, cussed by the impious, it tried everyone’s strength and patience.
When the trail became so water-logged that wagons could not be pulled through, travelers cut new paths through the nearby woods.
Here you see three cuts made to avoid mud into which oxcarts and wagons sank, making progress slow, dangerous, or even impossible.
We are Ghosts. It is not impossible.
Tupelo to Muscle Shoals
Today we are driving about 150 miles straight up the Trace and halfway to Nashville. Our destination to the north is the Old Trace Drive. This dirt road is one of only two places on the original Old Natchez Road that can be driven today. It’s only 2 1/2 miles, but a really great excuse to drive all day on one of the purtiest roads you’ll see to get there. It’s also fun. On the way to our way back to our hotel in Florence, AL, we’ll visit the Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall (dare your friends to pronounce that consistently).
Parkway Visitor Center
Start your day in the Visitor Center just up the road from the Hotel Tupelo. It’s the big one on the Trace, and very interesting. Short film, timelines, gift shop, etc. Also restrooms if you drank your coffee too late. Opens at 9.
Milepost 270 – Old Trace Info Sign
It’s worth going the 50 steps to wonder where the trail is fricking going. Just look down at the ditch. That’s it. That’s the Old Trace when it was still a footpath. There are also some Confederate gravestones but I’m not sure I see the point in seeing them.
Milepost 327 – Colbert Ferry
Colbert Ferry. George Colbert, a Choctaw, operated a stand and ferry here. The Tennessee River was part of the water route on the Trail of Tears as a result of the Federal Indian Removal Policy. Between 1816 and 1840, tribes between the ceded their lands in over 40 treaties. President Andrew Jackson set a policy to relocate eastern Indians, endorsed by Congress in 1830. Over 100,000 Native Americans were driven west, sometimes by military force, and often treated brutally.
Milepost 375-ish – Old Trace
We will experience the road as it was in the early 1800s. The Natchez Trace Parkway, constructed in the 20th century as a National Park, does not follow the exact historical route of the Old Trace. What was it really like, you wonder?. Voila!
Remember, this route was for hundreds of years a footpath. With maybe a few horses.
Warning: this is a narrow road, and there may be a few low-hanging limbs. Hooray: no RVs.
There are three scenic overlooks to enjoy, especially if we are hitting the fall colors. At the end of this cutoff, there are restrooms on the right. Hey, it’s been a long drive, am I not right?
Take a left and go back south on the Parkway.
Milepost 350 – Dealing with Mudholes
Examples of cuts around mud. If you don’t want to stop (I wouldn’t), here’s what the sign says:
This early interstate road building venture produced a snake-infested, mosquito-beset, robber-haunted, Indian-traveled forest path. Lamented by the pious, cussed by the impious, it tried everyone’s strength and patience.
When the trail became so water-logged that wagons could not be pulled through, travelers cut new paths through the nearby woods.
Here you see three cuts made to avoid mud into which oxcarts and wagons sank, making progress slow, dangerous, or even impossible.
We are Ghosts. It is not impossible.