Within 15 miles of The Grand Ole Opry


Tuesday, May 28, 2019

We are in a new time zone so everyone can guess what that means…it gets light at 5:00 so I was up shortly after…much to my better half’s chagrin!  The plan was to go see two waterfalls before leaving the park and before it got busy.  You know, at 7:30 no-one was there to bother us, and we had the 256-foot falls all to ourselves.  The Fall Creek Falls advertises itself as the highest falls east of the Rockies.  We could barely see the bottom of the gorge that the water plunged into.  Sue was a happy camper despite getting up way too early.

The rest of the day was spent getting our selves to Nashville…no not to go to The Grand Ole Opry…but to get onto the Natchez Trace.  The Natchez Trace Parkway is part of the National Park system.  It spans 444 miles passing through 3 states.  It was established in 1938 and was finally completed in 2005.  Only the government could take so long to complete a project!

The ‘Trace’, as it is referred to, starts in Nashville and ends in Natchez (Mississippi).  Originally it was a foot path used by the native tribes.  Then as the United States expanded westward in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, many used this route.  From 1800 to the mid 1820’s, ‘Kaintucks’ from the Ohio River Valley floated their crops and livestock down the Mississippi River on Wooden flatboats.  At Natchez or New Orleans, they sold their goods, sold their boats as lumber and walked or rode horseback home via the Old Trace.  ‘Progress’ ended this.  With the invention of steamboats, they were able to return home by water.

We are camping at David Crockett State Park (yes, that Davy Crockett) about 80 miles south of Nashville and slightly east of the Trace.


Fall Creek Falls plunging 256 feet into the gorge


Replica of the Grinder Stand (Inn) where Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame) died in 1809... log structure was fully inspected!


Fall Hollow Falls on Natchez Trace


Part of the Old Trace

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