The Natchez Trace Trail is a designated National Scenic Trail in the United States whose route generally follows sections of the 444-mile (715 km) Natchez Trace Parkway through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. Unlike other national scenic trails, however, the trail is not envisioned as a long, continuous footpath, as is the case with other national scenic trails including, notably, the Appalachian Trail. Rather, only a limited number of trail segments along the route, currently over 60 miles (97 km) of trail, have been developed for hiking and horseback riding. Unlike many other trails that rely heavily on volunteers for trail construction and maintenance, these segments are managed by the National Park Service. Sections of the trail follow along the Parkway road shoulder and cross county and state roads.
The Parkway and National Scenic Trail commemorate the historic Natchez Trace, an ancient path that began as a Native American trail and has a rich history of use by explorers, "Kaintuck" boatmen, post riders, and military men.
Read more about Natchez Trace Trail: Trail Sections
Famous quotes containing the words trace and/or trail:
“Of moral purpose I see no trace in Nature. That is an article of exclusively human manufacture—and very much to our credit.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“And Change with hurried hand has swept these scenes:
The woods have fallen, across the meadow-lot
The hunter’s trail and trap-path is forgot,
And fire has drunk the swamps of evergreens;
Yet for a moment let my fancy plant
These autumn hills again: the wild dove’s haunt,
The wild deer’s walk: in golden umbrage shut,”
—Frederick Goddard Tuckerman (1821–1873)