After 3 weeks in Louisiana hiking, geocaching and generally enjoying the warmth, we moved on to Mississippi.

In Natchez, Mississippi we set out on a 444 mile journey on the Natchez Trace National Parkway. We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend 4 1/2 days. There are no stop signs, no traffic lights and the speed limit is 50. In addition to having beautiful scenery it is is a historic trial with 2-4 stopping points every 10 miles which is why it took so long. We walked to waterfalls, visited historic monuments, and visited confederate graves. We learned a lot about the original Trace where tradesmen, armies and natives all walked at various times. If you ever get the chance drive all or some of it!

This spillway over the dam at Natchez State Park reminded me of a Plinko game.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife on the parkway but his horse appeared to have gotten out of his pasture and tied traffic up for a while!

While walking a path through a cypress swamp we saw lot of turtles and a baby alligator.

This lovely old Methodist church in an abandoned town on the Trace is still used once a month for services.

Lives were hard in the 1800s. There were graves in this cemetery of 3 siblings born in successive years who all died under a year old. Many of the adult graves were individuals under 40.

Thousands of soldiers, tradesmen and Indians walked this path, including some Indian relocations. It is part of ''the trail of tears''. It is sunken due to the softness of the earth and the thousands of people, horses and wagons that traversed it.

The graves of thirteen unknown Confederate soldiers buried along the Trace.

In the middle of our serene ride along the Trace, right before we crossed the northern Mississippi border we took a 2 night break at a state park. About 10:45 I received a severe weather alert on my phone. Our state park was the first location named and we were warned of an approaching tornado and advised to seek shelter immediately. Since we don't have a car we put on rain gear, got flashlights and trudged almost 1/2 mile to the bathroom. There we spent almost 2 hours in the women's bathroom with about 15 other people and several well behaved dogs. The men's side was similarly full.The wind was howling, the lightning was constant and the rain was torrential. It was probably one of the worst storms I have ever experienced. When the threat was over we had to trudge back through the pouring rain, tree branches, flooded roads and pitch darkness since there was now no power.  We were soaked when we got back but at least it wasn't cold out. Guess we now get to add tornado to our previous camping encounters with floods and fires! The next day dawned bright and sunny and after avoiding the downed trees on the road we were back on the Trace.

 

I did have to move this one large tree out of the way though.😂

All water and warmth had bluebells blooming everywhere!

Due to the heavy rain, the steep trails to the waterfalls were somewhat treacherous but the falls were beautiful.

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And, after 5 days we were done with the Trace. We did a one night stop in Tennessee where we met up with a second cousin, Rob Everetts and  then one night in Kentucky where our park had all these fun Big Twig figures and now we are on our way home. 

What a trip!