Bullen Creek Nature Trail on the Natchez Trace Parkway
Length: .2-mile loop
Time: 10-15 minutes, including time to read the information panels
Difficulty: Easy
The Bullen Creek Nature Trail on the Natchez Trace Parkway forms a U-shape that begins and ends at different sides of the parking lot. Being a typical nature trail, information signs along the way point out various trees and discuss the ecology of the area. This information progresses as you walk counterclockwise around the trail, so start at the trailhead located on the right side of the parking lot. If you couldn’t care less about learning something, then it makes no difference which side you start on.
This particular trail focuses on the evolution of the forest that you are walking through. Europeans arrived to find a mature hardwood forest, but they soon clear-cut the trees to make way for farming. In the 1930s, the government began purchasing land for the Natchez Trace Parkway and the farmers started moving out of the area, allowing the trees to reclaim the fields. Pine trees are the first to inhabit a new forest and are mainly what you see today, but eventually the hardwoods will once again dominate.
Nature trails do not offer anything for the serious hiker, but they are fine for those who want to stretch their legs after a long drive on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Most are kid and elderly friendly, and the Bullen Creek Nature Trail in no exception. It is flat and easy to hike and has no tricky side trails or unmarked intersections to set you off in the wrong direction, plus the terrain is smooth, so you won’t be tripping over loose rocks and tree roots.
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Last updated on December 11, 2021
