The Natchez Trace Parkway stretches more than 444 miles through three states and 10,000 years of North American history. This scenic parkway links Natchez, Mississippi with Nashville and crosses some of the most beautiful terrain in the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.
Declared a National Scenic Byway and an All-American Road, the Natchez Trace Parkway, whose speed limit is no more than 50 miles per hour, is open year-round affording visitors the opportunity for an unhurried trip through time.
Natchez Trace Parkway. Photo via Wikipedia Commons
Matthew Nichols, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Established as a unit of the National Park System in 1938 and officially completed in 2005, the Parkway is currently headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Trailer camping is permitted only at designated campgrounds like Natchez Trace RV Park. Nestled in the heart of northern Mississippi’s rolling hills, Natchez Trace RV Park is six miles southwest of Tupelo and 400 yards off of the parkway between mile markers 251 and 252.
The pet-friendly RV park features 32 sites and full hook-ups. Amenities include 30/50 amp electrical, water, sewer, showers, a pool, laundromat, picnic tables, big rig access and pull-throughs. Open year-round, the quiet park also features two ponds.
A few miles away is the nine-hole Bel Air Golf Course, which offers terrific views and challenging play for golfers at every skill level.
This popular course opened in 1936, the year after Tupelo’s most famous resident was born: Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll. Bel Air Golf Course, which is difficult, yet friendly, is a par 36 that measure 3,026 yards. Weather permitting the golf season is open year-round.
Tupelo offers some interesting sites not to be missed. Elvis Presley’s birthplace is a must-visit. The city of Tupelo bought the home and surrounding property in 1957.
Birthplace of Elvis Presley. Photo via Flickr Creative Commons
Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Elvis wanted a park for the neighborhood children and donated the proceeds from a concert at the Tupelo Fairgrounds to further that cause. The property stands in its original location and has been restored to its original condition, decorated with period furniture, and is open to the public for tours.
Tupelo Automobile Museum is another attraction worth seeing. It features 120,000 square feet of automobile displays and open viewing restoration bays.
The museum features more than 100 antique, classic, and collectible automobiles chronologically displayed to illustrate the progress of over a century of automobile design and engineering.
Your self-guided tour begins with an 1886 Benz, representing the birth of the automobile, and culminates with a never-driven 1994 Dodge Viper. The collection, valued at over $6 million, includes a rare Tucker, a Lincoln previously owned by Elvis Presley, other movie and celebrity vehicles, Hispano Suizas, a Duesenberg, and many more rare brands and American favorites.
For more about the Tupelo area, visit Tupelo.net. You can also find more information about Natchez Trace RV Park on RV LIFE Campgrounds.
Rick Stedman is an avid golfer, RVer, and writer who lives in Olympia, Washington. Rick writes a golf column, “The RV Golfer,” which is published every month in rvlife.com. He can be reached at rstedman@gmail.com.
The Natchez Trail is beautiful (from what we have seen) and historic. I find it interesting that an RV park on the Trail is “big rig friendly” when MS law prohibits tow combinations greater than 60’. I deove part of it in our truck and would not want to share that road with cyclists. I didn’t get out and measure, but around Madison, MS it doesn’t appear that the canopy has been trimmed to the highway normal of 14’. My Momentum 396TH will stay off of the Trail. We will stick to day trips on the truck.
What were interested in is safe back roads, wild horses, Deleware, Atlantic coast of Virginia, New Jersey along the Atlantic Ocean, But before we get to any of these places we have to spend 2 to 3 weeks in New Orleans after the rowdies leave, some where around April, May then head To Chicago to Route 66. Well be starting our trip around end of March 2018 in Vancouver, BC or Bellingham, WA
Stude
Does anyone have a list of big rig RV friendly campgrounds along the Trail, not on it, but near the trail where we can easily jump on to the trail for day trips?
Regards,
OWV
I live 8 miles from the pictured bridge and travel the trace a few times each year.
Be careful when traveling near the north terminus. Although the speed limit is fairly low, the real hazards are the many bicyclists and runners in the area. Sometimes they can be hard to see.
We drove the Trace this past spring and it remains one of the favorite parts of our travels. We spent several weeks making the drive, staying at each of the three free Parks service campgrounds along the way for several days. No commercial traffic along the Trace is a huge bonus! The whole thing feels like a step back in time and there are many historic places to visit along the way if you take your time.