The Natchez Trace Parkway Towns Worth Stopping In

The Natchez Trace Parkway runs 444 miles, and you can't buy a single burger on it. The road between Natchez, Mississippi, and the Nashville area has no commercial services by design, so every meal on the drive comes from the towns just off the exits.

Some of them sit right at the ramp. French Camp's Council House Cafe, in an 1820s log cabin about 100 yards from the parkway, serves Mississippi Mud Cake and Pecan Pie Bread Pudding. Eighty miles farther north, Tupelo finally has the burger. Johnnie's Drive-In has been serving its doughburger there since 1945, in the town where Elvis was born. The parkway follows the old Natchez Trace, a route travelers walked and rode across the South for generations before cars, and these are the towns along it most worth the exit.

Franklin, Tennessee

Near the parkway's northern end, Franklin is the stop to plan a December drive around. Dickens of a Christmas brings musicians, dancers, and costumed Dickens characters to Main Street on December 12 and 13, its 41st year. The town sits eight miles east of Milepost 438 on Tennessee Highway 96, just past the Double Arch Bridge for northbound drivers, and Timberland Park at Milepost 437.2 has a woodland loop trail past a pond and a meadow.

During the day, the Battle of Franklin Trust gives guided tours of the Carter House and Carnton, with a $28 combination ticket sold online and the last tour starting at 4 p.m. Downtown, Landmark Booksellers stocks more than 60,000 titles, Puckett's serves cherry-smoked barbecue, and The Factory at Franklin fills a former stove factory with shops. The city lights its Christmas tree on December 4 and holds its parade on December 5, a week ahead of Dickens.

Tupelo, Mississippi

The parkway runs straight through Tupelo in northeast Mississippi, with five exits into town, and it takes a full day to use them well. In the morning, the Milepost 262.5 exit onto McCullough Boulevard leads a couple of miles west to the Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo on Coley Road, where buffalo graze in open fields. Winter hours, November through March, are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

By midday, head for the Elvis Presley Birthplace, east on Mississippi Highway 6 from Milepost 259.7. The two-room house where Elvis was born, with its wood-burning stove and no indoor plumbing, stands on the grounds alongside a museum and the church he attended as a boy, which was moved to the site. A ticket for all three is $25 this year, or $20 for seniors, and one attraction alone is $12. The ticket office closes at 3 p.m. For lunch, Johnnie's Drive-In on East Main Street, open since 1945, is known for its doughburger, and the booth where Elvis sat is marked. Bring cash.

Late in the afternoon, the Parkway Visitor Center at Milepost 266 shows a 16-minute film and is open until 4:30 p.m. The Tupelo Elvis Festival takes over downtown each year in early June.

Natchez, Mississippi

Natchez sits at Milepost 0, where the parkway begins at a small paved pull-off on Liberty Road with room for about four cars, an information kiosk, and a memorial plaque. The town lies to the west. The Pilgrimage Garden Club's spring tours run March 11 through April 10, 2027, taking visitors through historic houses and out into their manicured gardens.

Bluff Park runs along the top of the riverbank downtown, with paved paths and a long view west over the Mississippi at sunset. Melrose, part of Natchez National Historical Park, is open daily, and its guided house tours are reserved ahead on Recreation.gov.

Below the bluff, Silver Street leads down to Natchez Under-the-Hill, where Magnolia Grill, closed Mondays, serves Mississippi catfish and Gulf seafood from a glassed-in deck overlooking the river. Natchez Brewing Company Kitchen, up on High Street, pours its own beer seven days a week.

Florence, Alabama

Florence, in the northwest corner of Alabama, is the longest detour among these towns, about 15 miles east of the parkway, and the recording studios in neighboring Muscle Shoals are the reason to make it. Exit at Milepost 336 onto Alabama Highway 20, or at Milepost 331.5 onto Lauderdale County Road 14. FAME Studios runs tours at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays and three times on Saturdays, at $20 for the standard tour and $40 for the backstage version, with no tours over Thanksgiving weekend or the Christmas holidays. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio gives tours on the half hour, Tuesday through Saturday.

In Florence itself, the Rosenbaum House on Riverview Drive is the only home in Alabama designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Tours take about 45 minutes and cost $10 for adults, and tickets are sold only at the door, Tuesday through Sunday. Court Street's Christmas tree is lit at the top of the street on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, November 22 this year, and the same street has Billy Reid's flagship store, Odette for dinner, and Big Bad Breakfast.

Kosciusko, Mississippi

A mile west of Milepost 160, Kosciusko is a courthouse town in central Mississippi. The Attala County Courthouse stands in the middle of the square, and beehive sculptures dot the square around it. Jason's Southern Table, on North Jackson Street, serves steak dinners Wednesday through Saturday. On the last Saturday in April, the town holds the Natchez Trace Festival. Back at the ramp, the Kosciusko Information Center has restrooms, a boardwalk, exhibits on General Tadeusz Kosciuszko, and a bike camp with a tent pad for cyclists riding the parkway.

Ridgeland, Mississippi

Ridgeland meets the parkway at Milepost 103.4, just north of Jackson, and the Bill Waller Craft Center sits in the woods beside the road at 950 Rice Road. Its galleries sell work from more than 400 juried artisans, including glass, handmade jewelry, quilts, baskets, and turned wood. Craft classes and demonstrations are held in the building, and the galleries are open Tuesday through Saturday. The Craftsmen's Guild of Mississippi, which runs the center, holds its 50th Chimneyville Arts Festival November 12 through 14.

The Chisha Foka Multi-Use Trail runs about 10 paved miles alongside the parkway for walkers and cyclists. Old Trace Park, on Barnett Reservoir, has an 18-hole disc golf course and picnic spots by the water, and Pearl River Kayaks rents boats for the reservoir's 105 miles of shoreline. Pelican Cove Grill is known for its frozen Pink Pelican and Gulf shrimp po-boys, with live music and sunset views.

Hohenwald, Tennessee

Hohenwald lies about seven miles west of the parkway in Middle Tennessee, and two exits five miles apart turn it into a loop. Tennessee Highway 20 at Milepost 386 leads into town, and U.S. Highway 412 at Milepost 391 leads back. On Main Street, the Elephant Sanctuary's Discovery Center has indoor exhibits, an outdoor classroom, and live video feeds from the sanctuary's habitats. The sanctuary itself is closed to the public and no elephants live at the center, but admission is free, Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Farther along Main Street, the Lewis County Museum of Natural History has a large collection of animal mounts.

Southern Skillet on North Park Street handles lunch, and Rockin' Coffee Co. is a few doors south for the road. Heading back east on U.S. 412, Fall Hollow Restaurant sits right at the parkway exit, and just north at Milepost 391.9, a short trail leads to the Fall Hollow waterfalls.

Iuka, Mississippi

Iuka is in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, a short drive north of the parkway on Mississippi Highway 25 from Milepost 303, through the town of Tishomingo. Mineral Springs Park is the first stop. Six natural springs rise in the park, and a covered bridge, one of the few left in Mississippi, crosses Spring Creek there. The Old Tishomingo County Courthouse Museum is in town, and Iuka holds Renaissance Day in April and its Heritage Festival over Labor Day weekend.

Woodall Mountain, just south of Iuka, is the highest point in Mississippi at 806 feet. Tishomingo State Park sits just outside town and straddles the parkway at Milepost 304.5, where a swinging bridge crosses Bear Creek on the mile-long Swinging Bridge Trail. Entry is $2 per person, and the park's seven trails run between three-quarters of a mile and three miles. From mid-April to mid-October, water permitting, the park has offered a 6.25-mile canoe float down Bear Creek with gear and a shuttle included, so it is worth calling ahead.

Port Gibson, Mississippi

Port Gibson is a small town near the parkway's southern end, two miles off Milepost 37.7, and the best way in is the long way, past Windsor Ruins. Leave the parkway at Milepost 30 onto Mississippi Highway 552 west and follow the signs to the ruins, where 23 columns stand in an open field, free to see every day during daylight hours. The road on into Port Gibson follows Church Street, the stretch of U.S. 61 lined with live oaks and old houses, and the steeple of First Presbyterian Church is topped with a hand pointing at the sky. Grand Gulf Military Park, about eight miles northwest of town, has a museum, hiking trails, an observation tower, and a campground. Back on the parkway, four miles north of the town's exit, the Sunken Trace trail is a 600-foot walk.

Collinwood, Tennessee

Collinwood, a small Wayne County town in Tennessee, makes an easy breakfast stop, because Q Barbecue opens at 8 a.m. Thursday through Sunday. Exit at the Collinwood Welcome Center sign at Milepost 355, and the center of town is 150 yards straight ahead. The barbecue is cooked over live fire, the scratch-made sides change every week, and the kitchen stays open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays, 8 on Fridays and Saturdays, and 6 on Sundays. The old train depot is now the town library, and the Dragonfly Emporium sells local crafts and antiques from a shop with its own coffee lounge. The Christmas parade comes through on the second Sunday of December, the 13th this year.

French Camp, Mississippi

At Milepost 180.8 in Mississippi, French Camp is small enough that lunch is the visit. Take Mississippi Highway 413 east, go about 100 yards, and turn onto Le Fleur Circle, where the Council House Cafe occupies a log cabin from the 1820s. The menu runs to big sandwiches, soups, salads, and a Blue Plate Special, with Mississippi Mud Cake and Pecan Pie Bread Pudding for dessert. There is an outdoor deck with a large fireplace, and the cafe is closed on Sundays.

The Huffman Log Cabin Gift Shop sells handmade gifts out of an 1840s cabin, and the bakery at the French Camp Academy welcome center sells fresh bread and desserts to anyone passing through. In the historic village, sorghum is made the old-fashioned way every Saturday in October. For an overnight stop, two connected 19th-century log cabins serve as a bed and breakfast for up to eight people.

A December run works best heading south. Dickens of a Christmas fills Franklin's Main Street on Saturday, December 12, and the next day Collinwood holds its Christmas parade, about 80 parkway miles south, with Q Barbecue serving until 6 p.m. Monday suits Tupelo, where the Birthplace opens at 9 a.m. and the Buffalo Park keeps its winter hours of 10 to 4. French Camp's Council House Cafe is about 80 miles beyond that, serving lunch every day but Sunday, and its fireplace deck makes a good midday stop. From there, the last 180 miles pass the beehives on Kosciusko's square and the turnoff for Windsor Ruins before ending at the four-car pull-off on Liberty Road, where the parkway begins.