The Natchez Trace: Camping and The Government Shutdown
Leaving Eastern Tennessee heading home to South Mississippi, we decided to take the Natchez Trace down. When pulling the camper, we never go more than 60-65 mph and there is so much beauty on the trace, it definitely was the best option. There are some great campsites on the trace too; so easy to pull over for the night.
The Natchez Trace is 444 miles but we decided to get off around Jackson and head on into Hattiesburg to spend Christmas Even and the Christmas holidays with family.
The Natchez Trace has beautiful trails and I was pleasantly surprised with the campgrounds. Unfortunately, the government shut down occurred on our second day on the trace. This meant that the campgrounds continued to stay open, the welcome centers and bathroom facilities did not.
We left Pigeon Forge on a Friday morning and headed to Nashville; we ate dinner in Nashville and decided to head to the first campground on the Natchez Trace, Meriwether Lewis on mile post 385 (of the 444) so it was still early on into the Trace and still in Tennessee.
This is a free campsite, paved, well maintained. Fire pits and picnic tables and a very clean (new looking) restroom facility. There were no showers but the restroom was heated (and I am sure cooled in the summer). There are no hook ups but it was a nice, safe place to stay for the night. Being self-contained and having a generator, we didn't need hook ups anyway; we were there only one night. If we did not have a time frame to arrive home for Christmas this was a place we could see us staying two or three nights at. We arrived Friday night and left Saturday late morning and everything was still opened at that time.
We continued down the Trace and decided to stop for lunch at a nice little historic site. This is where we found out about the government shutdown. This was late Saturday afternoon and the restrooms at this site where locked with a notice about the shutdown. Since there will not be anyone there to maintain the restrooms they decided to lock them all up.
When we got close to Tupelo, MS, my daughter Shelby needed to use the restroom and we were close to a Welcome Center on the Trace. This Welcome Center was a nice one with lots of interactive displays; we had stopped at this center before and I knew it would be a nice stop. Unfortunately, it was closed and the restrooms were locked because of the shutdown. Thank goodness they did not close the campgrounds as we were heading to the next one on the list. We had to drive into Tupelo and find a restroom there to use.
Jeff Busby Campground, mile post 193 in Mississippi
We spent Saturday night at this campground; another nice, well maintained place to camp for free. Again, no hook ups but we did not need them. I was unable to check out the restroom facilities to see how they were since they were locked.
Sunday, we ended up driving on into south Mississippi and stayed on Family property until we got settled into a place by a Lake in between Collins and Hattiesburg. The next month will be spent visiting family before spending some time in Florida and then in Texas as we figure out our route to Montana for the summer.
To Keep up with how the government shutdown is effecting The Natchez Trace and the campgrounds there, here is their website: Camping Along the Natchez Trace
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