23rd April 2015.......Natchez Trace Parkway, Mississippi

Today we head out to drive south 88 miles on the Natchez Trace Parkway to Natchez....
Ooops.....we have just followed a pilot car thorough a stretch of roadworks then around a corner to find a tree has literally just fallen across the road barely missing a car....there has been so much rain that the trees are very vulnerable....we saw evidence of others that had fallen recently...

Ummmm...too big to move....

Yorkieman and a couple of other guys manage to move enough branches for us to manoeuvre our vehicles around the end  of it but it does entail going off road down a ditch !! 4 wheel drive and hope for the best !!

Well we made it through and on to the next historic marker...
Over the years the water table has fallen but they have had so much rain recently that the creek once again sings to the sound of the waterfall... 

And here it is...not the most powerful we have seen but water is falling :)

Turn another comer and the landscape changes from the tree lined road to being very agricultural and open...

The Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez to Nashville is 440 miles long and was originally an Indian trade route  & then used by early settlers, they would float their crops and livestock down the Mississippi River on wooden flatboats, from Memphis to Natchez or New Orleans where they would sell their goods and boats and walk or ride back home via the Trace....
This section of the Trace, next 3 photos, is the Sunken Trace....

Much like many lanes in UK the Trace was eroded by wagons and horses to form  a sunken trail...

The Happy Travellers in The Sunken Trace...

Spanish Moss a feature of the Southern States....

15 miles short of Natchez we stop at Mount Locust site of a restored plantation house and National Parks Welcome Centre... 

Mount Locust is one of the oldest structures in an area known for historic houses...

At the welcome centre we were given info for the many plantation houses in Natchez....first stop Stanton Hall  now a museum and restaurant....

Not on the list but a grand house and hey a water-tower....

As you can see from these photos the sky is rather grey, we have been lucky today with our scenic drive and not had any rain but the forecast is for more storms...The Soggy Campers need to make a decsion soon whether to continue with our plan to go north or head to calmer "waters" .....