Exploring Tupelo, MS and the Natchez Trace Parkway

Planning our RV travel route at times can be challenging especially since there are so many choices of wonderful places to visit. As I planned our route south to Florida for the winter, I set a few goals for the trip. My first goal was to reduce costs by staying at Thousand Trails parks so that we could take full advantage of our membership. This made goal two, to visit new states, more difficult to accomplish since the Thousand Trails campgrounds are clustered on the coasts. After leaving Indiana, I had to plan stops in states we had already visited, like Tennessee and Alabama to be able to stay in a Thousand Trails campground.

We have to spend a week out of the Thousand Trails system in between each 14 day stay, so I chose to do the week out in Mississippi. Goal three for this trip is to find places to visit where we can spend time outdoors and enjoy nature. My research led me to Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis’s birthplace. There is a great deal of history in this area and it provided easy access to the Natchez Trace Parkway so it clearly met our goals. We booked The Campground at Barnes Crossing for the week which is a pretty little campground in a suburban neighborhood. It was less than a 2 hour drive from our last campground and a little more than a 2 hour drive to our next campground in Alabama so very convenient and short travel days for us.

Our site at The Campground at Barnes Crossing

We have highly enjoyed our week in Tupelo. We found something to do almost every day and since the campground was close to both downtown and an entrance to the Natchez Trace Parkway everything was convenient. On the first day, we checked out downtown Tupelo and Elvis’s Birthplace. I loved the downtown area. It has a quaint small town vibe to it with a main street filled with older refurbished buildings now home to businesses, shops, and restaurants. Many of the brick walls on the older buildings were covered with murals and the sidewalk was lined with decorative guitars. I read that there is a vibrant nightlife with entertainment at many of the restaurants and bars throughout the week. We are not going out to indoor events yet so we didn’t attend so we will have to come back in the future for that experience. To help the small businesses, we ordered take out from some of the local restaurants and it was all quite good. I had the best shrimp and grits that I have ever had at the Fairpark Grill.

I loved these colorful guitars that lined Main Street.

The hardware store where Elvis got his first guitar.

This park downtown was very pretty. It is located on the fairgrounds where Elvis came back home to perform.

Elvis’s birthplace was an interesting stop. Since I didn’t get to Graceland while we were near Memphis, this was the next best thing. There are quite a few exhibits outside that you can do for free and there are fees to tour the house and museum. We decided to just tour the museum and see the house from the outside since it is pretty small. We were initially the only ones in the museum so we took our time and read all of the exhibits. I always enjoy history, so found the museum to be interesting and informative. It covered Elvis’s life as well as the history of music in the area. I actually liked the outdoor exhibits even better, especially the letters written by people who knew Elvis when he was a child. The reflection pond area was very pretty and peaceful. I would have enjoyed spending a little more time there but it started raining on us.

I love this idea of sitting quietly and reflecting on the blessings in our lives. I wish I could have sat and enjoyed a little time here but the rain chased me indoors.

This exhibit was at the top of a hill above the museum and house. It was worth the hike up the hill and view of the grounds of the property.

On another day, we checked out the Tupelo Veteran’s Park and the Tupelo National Battlefield. We have always liked touring Civil War battlefields and many of these smaller towns in the south have a battlefield nearby. The one in Tupelo is small and located in town so it is a quick stop. We spent more time at the Veteran’s park. They had memorials to veteran’s from all of our past wars and a full size replica of the Vietnam Veteran Memorial that is located in Washington D.C. It was a humbling experience to walk along the wall and read the many names of the dead and missing.

As you can see, we were very busy touring Tupelo and really enjoyed visiting this town. We also spent 2 days traveling along the Natchez Trace Parkway. This historic road runs 444 miles from Natchez to Nashville. Run by the National Park System, the Natchez Trace Parkway runs through 3 states and covers 10,000 years of history. The Natchez Trace was a natural travel route for the Natchez, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. The road started as an Indian foot path and expanded as settlers used it as a trade route. There is so much history along this road. We drove a small section of the road when we were near Nashville and decided to enjoy more of the drive in Mississippi. I think that we would enjoy driving the entire parkway but didn’t have enough time for that this trip. The campground was less than a mile from the visitor’s center and a parkway entrance so it was very convenient for a few drives as well as some morning hikes. Since this post is getting a bit long, I will tell the story of the parkway with pictures.

We had beautiful weather for our drive so we enjoyed the convertible.

Catching some rays while out for a drive.

We saw Indian Mounds in two different spots along the parkway. These are the Owl Creek Mounds.

There were a few lakes with campgrounds along and near the parkway.

We drove as far north on the parkway to Tishomingo State Park which was built during the depression by the CCC. I will end the post with these pictures from the park.

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Exploring Tupelo, MS and the Natchez Trace Parkway

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