- Where
- Mississippi, north-west Alabama
and Tennessee, United States - Start / end
- Natchez, MS (milepost 0) to near Nashville, TN (milepost 444)
- Length
- 444 mi / 714.5 km (NPS; FHWA)
- Designation
- All-American Road (FHWA, 1996)
- Speed limit
- 50 mph unless posted (NPS)
- Season
- Open all year; closures for weather and construction
- Fees
- None for the road (FHWA)
- Status
- Closed MP 135–159.5 and MP 437–440, detours signed (NPS, 7 Oct 2026)
- Advisory
- United States
(no State Department level)
A green tunnel of oaks and grey moss, two lanes, nothing for sale beside the road, and nobody in a hurry. I stopped where the old path ran sunk between its own banks, deeper than I am tall, roots hanging over it like eaves, and walked a little way down it in the damp. It was very quiet. I walked back up slowly.
Route facts
- Route
- Natchez, Mississippi (milepost 0) to near Nashville, Tennessee (milepost 444)
- Length
- 444 miles (714.5 km)Checked · Federal Highway Administration, America’s Byways: Natchez Trace Parkway
- Season window
- Open all year; closures for weather and constructionChecked · National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway: road and site status
- Closures
- Partly closed as read Open with two signed detours: milepost 135 to 159.5 (reconstruction) and milepost 437 to 440 (Double Arch Bridge), as listed on the Park Service’s status page (updated 7 October 2026, read 13 October 2026).Live alert: National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway: road and site status
- Fees
- No fee for the roadChecked · National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway: frequently asked questions
- Cost to enter
- Free
- Anchor point
- Emerald Mound
31.64° N, 91.25° W
The short answer
The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 444-mile road managed by the National Park Service, from milepost 0 near Natchez, Mississippi, to milepost 444 near Nashville, Tennessee, crossing a corner of north-west Alabama on the way. The speed limit is 50 mph, commercial vehicles are not allowed, and the Park Service allows at least ten hours to drive it end to end (its history page says more than eleven). The Federal Highway Administration lists it as an All-American Road, with no fee. It is open all year, but the Park Service’s Road and Site Status page, last updated on 7 October 2026 and read again on 13 October, listed two closures with signed detours: milepost 135 to 159.5 in central Mississippi, for road reconstruction, from 3 August to late 2026; and milepost 437 to 440 in Tennessee, around the Double Arch Bridge, from 15 April 2026 to spring 2027.
Why it's worth knowing
A road built to remember a path. The Park Service describes the Natchez Trace corridor as an avenue of travel and trade for more than 10,000 years, and the parkway as the only national parkway that commemorates an ancient travel route. The Old Trace was a network of trails through the homelands of the Natchez, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. From about 1785 it carried “Kaintucks”, boatmen who floated goods down the Mississippi to Natchez and New Orleans, sold their flatboats for lumber, and walked or rode home along it, sleeping at inns called stands. In 1800 John Adams made it a postal route; Andrew Jackson marched troops along it in the War of 1812; Meriwether Lewis died beside it in Tennessee in 1809.
And people driven along it. The Park Service’s history page says that at the peak of the slave trade, enslaved people were forced to walk south down the Old Trace to the large slave market at Natchez, at risk on the way from bandits who would kidnap and sell them; some were taken to the Mount Locust plantation and stand, which still stands beside the parkway. It also says the American Indian nations of the corridor were forced to leave their homelands.
Older still. The parkway links more than 350 archaeological sites and 22 burial and ceremonial mounds. At milepost 10.3, Emerald Mound is the second-largest Mississippian Period ceremonial mound in the United States, after Monks Mound at Cahokia, the Park Service says: built and used between about 1200 and 1730 CE, 35 feet high over eight acres, with two smaller mounds on top bringing it to about 60 feet. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
The field notes
Where the path sank
Near Port Gibson, at milepost 41.5, a section of the Old Trace runs deep below the level of the land around it. The Park Service’s place page explains that where the soil is soft loess, thousands of walkers, riders and wagons in the late 1700s and early 1800s wore the path down into a “sunken” trench. It takes about five minutes to walk.
The bridge you cannot cross until 2027
The Double Arch Bridge at Birdsong Hollow, near the northern end, was completed in 1994: 1,572 feet long, about 155 feet above the valley, the first segmentally constructed concrete arch bridge in the United States, and winner of a 1995 Presidential Award for Design Excellence, the Park Service says. It closed on 15 April 2026 to motor vehicles, walkers and cyclists so that a permanent safety barrier can replace a temporary one and the bridge can be repainted; the Park Service’s release gives “spring 2027” and its status page “May 2027”. Until then a 7.5-mile detour by Highways 96 and 100 bypasses milepost 437 to 440, and the northern end can be visited in and out from the terminus to Big Tree Overlook.
The 83-mile rebuild
A three-phase, $150 million project is rebuilding 83 miles of the parkway in Mississippi, funded by the Great American Outdoors Act’s Legacy Restoration Fund and a Federal Highway Administration grant, the Park Service announced on 31 July 2026. Phase 2 closed the 24 miles between state Highway 16 (milepost 135) and state Highway 19 (milepost 159.5) from 3 August, with work expected to run through late 2026; the signed detour adds about 11 minutes but is not suitable for bicycles. The whole project is due to finish in mid-2027.
A sunken stretch of the old Trace near Grindstone Ford, worn below the forest floor.
Photograph: Billmeguire · CC0 · cropped
Emerald Mound, a flat-topped ceremonial mound beside the parkway.
Photograph: Kaotate · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
The Double Arch Bridge carrying the parkway over Birdsong Hollow, Tennessee, at milepost 438.
Photograph: National Park Service · Public domain (PD-USGov, US National Park Service) · cropped
A beaver dam across Colbert Creek at Rock Spring, milepost 330.2.
Photograph: National Park Service · Public domain (PD-USGov, US National Park Service)
- Keep to the speed limit and let the road set the pace. Nobody here is in a hurry, and you will not be either by the end.
- Climb the great mound slowly, and leave the ball and the kite in the car.
- Stop at the old stand house and read every panel, including the hard ones.
- Walk down into the sunken path in the morning, while it is still cool and nobody else is there.
- Look up the detours before you set off. (Written at fifty miles an hour, for once perfectly legible.)
The Sunken Trace. At milepost 41.5, near Port Gibson, Mississippi, a stretch of the Old Natchez Trace runs in a deeply eroded trench below the level of the ground around it. Nobody dug it: where the ground is loess, a soft, wind-laid silt, the feet of thousands of walkers and riders and the wheels of wagons in the late 1700s and early 1800s wore the path down into the earth, the National Park Service explains. It is a short walk from a parking area beside the parkway.
Tally, in the marginNobody dug it. It was walked down, a step at a time, by more feet than I can picture, and the ground gave way to them. I stood at the bottom for a long while and did not write anything else.
Getting there
How to drive it. The southern entrance is in Natchez, off Liberty Road; the central entrance is at Tupelo, from I-22 exit 85; the northern entrance, closest to Nashville, is reached from I-40 exit 192 and Tennessee Highway 100. Jackson, Mississippi, has entrances from I-55 exit 105A and I-20 exit 34 (all from the Park Service’s FAQ). The parkway headquarters and main visitor centre are at milepost 266, near Tupelo.
When to go. The parkway is open all year. The Park Service notes that summer highs reach the high 90s °F, winters are mild with frosts at night, thunderstorms are common, and southern Mississippi is occasionally hit by hurricanes. It is a designated bicycle route, busiest with cyclists in spring and autumn.
What to arrange ahead. Nothing for the road: there is no fee, the Federal Highway Administration says. Vehicles, including anything towed, may be up to 55 feet long and 14 feet high, and hauling is for recreation only. Check the Park Service’s Road and Site Status page for detours before setting out.
Safety. The State Department’s travel advisories cover other countries, so none applies here. Watch for cyclists, whom the Park Service asks drivers to pass by changing lanes, and for weekday commuter traffic around Jackson (mileposts 87–105) and Tupelo (mileposts 258–268).
Mark this place
Common questions
How long is the Natchez Trace Parkway?
The Natchez Trace Parkway is 444 miles long, the National Park Service says, from milepost 0 near Natchez, Mississippi, to milepost 444 near Nashville, Tennessee, through a corner of Alabama. It allows at least ten hours to drive it end to end.
Is the Natchez Trace Parkway open?
Most of it. On 7 October 2026 the National Park Service listed two closures on the Natchez Trace Parkway with signed detours: milepost 135 to 159.5 in Mississippi for road reconstruction, expected to last through late 2026, and milepost 437 to 440 in Tennessee around the Double Arch Bridge until spring 2027.
When will the Double Arch Bridge on the Natchez Trace reopen?
The Double Arch Bridge at Birdsong Hollow on the Natchez Trace Parkway closed on 15 April 2026 for a permanent safety barrier and repainting. The National Park Service’s release says it will reopen in spring 2027; its road status page says May 2027. A 7.5-mile detour by Highways 96 and 100 bypasses it.
Is there a fee to drive the Natchez Trace Parkway?
No. The Federal Highway Administration lists no fee for the Natchez Trace Parkway, an All-American Road. The National Park Service bans commercial vehicles on it and limits speed to 50 mph unless posted.
What is the Sunken Trace?
The Sunken Trace is a section of the Old Natchez Trace at milepost 41.5 of the Natchez Trace Parkway, near Port Gibson, Mississippi, where walkers, riders and wagons of the late 1700s and early 1800s wore the path deep into the soft loess soil. The National Park Service says the walk takes about five minutes.
What is Emerald Mound on the Natchez Trace?
Emerald Mound, at milepost 10.3 of the Natchez Trace Parkway near Natchez, Mississippi, is the second-largest Mississippian Period ceremonial mound in the United States, the National Park Service says. Built and used from about 1200 to 1730 CE, it covers eight acres and is about 60 feet high with its upper mounds.
Can trucks and RVs drive the Natchez Trace Parkway?
Commercial vehicles are prohibited on the Natchez Trace Parkway. RVs are allowed: the National Park Service sets a maximum length of 55 feet including a towed vehicle and a maximum height of 14 feet, and allows hauling for recreational use only.
When was the Natchez Trace Parkway built?
Congress made the Natchez Trace Parkway a unit of the National Park System on 18 May 1938, and the National Park Service says it was completed in 2005. It was designated a National Scenic Byway and All-American Road in 1996.