The Natchez Trace & Baton Rouge

The Natchez Trace and Baton Rouge

March 25-28

March 25: We packed up, left Nashville, and started driving our first day on the Natchez Trace Parkway. I had wanted to drive the Natchez Trace after listening to Mike and Jen of RV Lifestyle. As stated on the National Parks website, "The Natchez Trace Parkway is a a 444-mile recreational road and scenic drive through three states. It roughly follows the "Old Natchez Trace," a historic travel corridor used by American Indians, "Kaintucks," European settlers, slave traders, soldiers, and future presidents." 

The Natchez Trace is a really beautiful easy-going road. The red buds were out in full bloom and were beautiful. The hues of pink and green were really magical as we drove down the road. The road and trails were very uncrowded, and we passed very few cars and people along the way. 

On the first day of driving, we made (too) many stops, including Mile Markers: 

• 438: Birdsong Hollow

• 426.3: War of 1812 Memorial/Old Trace

• 411.8: Water Valley Overlook

• 405.1: Baker Bluff Overlook

• 404.7: Jackson Falls

• 401.4: Tobacco Farm/Old Trace Drive

• 350.5: Sunken Trace

• 330.2: Rock Spring

• 317.0: Freedom Hills Overlook

• 308.8: Bear Creek Mound

• 308.4: Cave Spring

• 286.7: Pharr Mounds 

Along the way, we stopped at the Bear Creek Mound and then at Sunken Trace. We met another couple was there who came out to greet us. The woman introduced herself wearing a confederate army hat. She mentioned how people down South are way more friendly than people up north. Coming from the North, we were a bit taken aback by her approaching us. 

Along they way, we realized that a lot of the stops are really just markers with little to see or do. Our favorite spots were ones where with nature trails. We did see some wild turkeys and snowy egrets along the way, which we enjoyed. 

We decided that this day was really too long a day because we got to the Trace State Park Campground, off of Mile Marker 266, around 6PM, way later than we like to arrive. There was no one at the campground to check us in and we had trouble finding our site as the sites are not numbered. We asked a camper we found walking around for help and then downloaded a PDF of the campground map to figure out where we should park for the night. We did enjoy being visited by a very funny looking Muscovy duck. The campground is a bit tired looking, but our spot was right on the lake, which was beautiful. That night, we selected some places to stop at tomorrow, trying to reduce the amount of stops and maximizing our time in the woods. 

During our trip, we began reflecting on how we need to rearrange some of our belongings for this trip, such as our chairs and table, to make them more accessible for one-night stays. We decided to rearrange the van when we got to Baton Rouge. We also decided that we don’t need the grill because it takes up a lot of space and we don’t use it very often. Removing the grill will need to wait until we return home. 

March 26: While packing up in the morning, we were visited by an Eastern Bluebird. The joy of the moment was broken when we realized that the location of the dump hook-up at our site was a tricky stretch for our hose. We were glad to be on our way. 

Based on the previous night's planning, we took several nice walks at the following stops at mile markers: 

• 263.9: Old Town Overlook

• 261.8: Chickasaw Village Site

• 233.2: Witch Dance

• 232.4: Bynum Mounds

• 145.1: Myrick Creek

• 122.6: River Bend

• 122.0: Cyprus Swamp

Before stopping at our boondockers welcome (Hatchpad off the Natchez, near mile marker 125.2), we visited the Swamp Walk and saw bald cyprus and water tupelo trees. We also stopped at River Bend, a beautiful spot on the Pearl River. We arrived at our boondocking spot around 5PM. The spot was super convenient with electricity and water hook up. Before dinner, we took another nice walk down the road in lovely weather. Then we ate dinner and hung out in the van.

March 27: This morning we headed down the last 125 miles of the Trace to Natchez, MS. 

On this last stretch of the Natchez Trace, we stopped at the following mile markers: 

• 107.9: West Florida Boundary

• 106.9: Boyd Site

• 105.6: Reservoir Overlook

• 88.1: Cowles Mead Cemetery

• 54.8: Rocky Springs

• 41.5: Sunken Trace

• 15.5: Mount Locust

• 10.3: Emerald Mound

• 5.1: Elizabeth Female Academy Site

We arrived in Natchez, a small town on the banks of the Mississippi River expecting to find some interesting shops to visit. There really was almost nothing there, just a very few restaurants and a nice river park that we visited to see the river. We had listened to an RV Life podcast about the Mississippi on the way down and we had also just read the book, James, so seeing the river was fun. 

We left Natchez pretty quickly and headed toward Baton Rouge, LA. We didn’t realize that Baton Rouge wasn’t on the other side of the Mississippi so we crossed the river without looking at our GPS, only to turn around and cross over again. We arrived at the Farr Equestrian Park and RV Park around 5:30 PM, took an initial site that we didn’t like because of how far it was from the showers, and moved to site A1 instead which turned out to be a good choice. This campground was one of my favorite, being connected to a horse park, and also being conveniently located near a greenway that we could ride our bikes right into downtown Baton Rouge. 

March 28: We rode our bikes into Baton Rouge, about a 6-7 mile ride, very easy on the e-bikes. We stopped first at the Welcome Center on 3rd Street to help plan our visit and to get a map. Then we went to the Capitol Building, saw where Huey Long was assassinated, saw both chambers of the State Senate and House of Representatives, and then took the elevator to the 27th floor for a 360 view of the city. 

Because very few of the vegan lunch options were closed, we biked to MJ’s Café for lunch. MJ's was a bit out of town but well worth the trip. We had a full delicious vegan meal of cauliflower chickpea pizza and Thai salad plus a large maple ginger cookie. It was all delicious and they let us park our e-bikes inside! After lunch, we biked back into town to visit the Old State Capitol, one of the most interesting parts of our whole trip. The Old State Capitol had a very interesting exhibit about Huey Long, social justice movements, voting rights, and democracy. 

We arrived back at the campsite around 3:30 PM, after biking 21 miles, just in time for the skies to open and start pouring. We also realized two things: 1) The water filter needs to be sloping down from the spigot in order for the water to be able to push through to the van; and 2) Our toilet was leaking worse than we thought so we had to shut off all the water. Realizing that we needed a new washer, we looked to see if there were any nearby hardware stores that were still open, which there weren’t. We called a few RV repair places and one of them finally answered the phone and confirmed what we needed to do to fix the leak. We turned off all the water and dry camped that night, figuring we would fix the toilet the next day or when we reached Austin, TX. But all in all, we liked Baton Rouge quite a bit.