Mile marker 41.5 Sunken Trace

Preserved here is a portion of the deeply eroded or 'sunken' Old Trace. Hardships of journeying on the Old Trace included heat, mosquito, poor food, hard beds (if any), disease, swollen rivers, and sucking swamps. Take five minutes to walk this sunken trail and let your imagination carry you back to the early 1800s when people walking 500 miles had to put up with these discomforts and where a broken leg or arm could spell death for the lone traveler.

                                                  Us Department of interior
                                                     National Park Service 

Sign from road

Me

Me and Bug

Bug and Brenda

Looking down onto the Sunken Trace

Down the steep part of the path

Fork in Sunken Trace. Legend has it that if you took the wrong path you would be robbed. Take the other path and you wouldn't!

Down the path to the right. No robbers here!

That flat grey line in the distance is the current Natchez Trace Parkway as seen from the old Trace.

Let's try the left fork!

Looking up a path of crisscrossed roots. They almost look like steps. I wonder if the robbers came down this path to get to the travelers?

Gnarly eroded roots

Nearly 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the sun streaming through the trees of the Sunken Trace