Sunken section of the Natchez Trace
The “sunken” road phenomenon is characteristic of the Natchez Trace’s southern sections, and the Sunken Trace pullout near mile post 41 on the Natchez Trace Parkway is the first stop that allows those in automobiles to witness, without walking very far from the parking lot, how humans altered the landscape over thousands of years. The soil in this area is of a sandy composition known as Loess (LOW-ess), and the human traffic that passed over the Trace—with great emphasis on the horse and wagon traffic from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s—wore a gully into the land as deep as fifteen feet in places. The trail here at the Sunken Trace represents one of the deeper gullies on the Natchez Trace.
Walking in the sunken Natchez Trace
While located near the parking lot, a view of the Sunken Trace still requires getting out of your car. The journey begins down a short but fairly steep hill that brings you to the bottom of the gully where you can take an easy stroll on a restored segment of the trail. By restored, I am referring to the fact that the National Park Service has cleared the trees and other vegetation. Non-restored sections of the Natchez Trace are now completely overgrown due to little use for the last 150+ years.
Short-but-steep path down to a sunken segment of the Natchez Trace
Once at the bottom, a right turn leads to a house at the end of a very short trail segment, so there’s not much to do in that direction. If you turn to the left, the trail forks around an earthen island. You can take either fork. Neither goes much more than a hundred yards or so before ending, one at some brush just before coming to the Natchez Trace Parkway and the other at the overgrown section of the Natchez Trace. Being a gully, a lot of debris ends up at the bottom, making the sunken sections of the trail Nature’s Garbage Dump.
Debris filled bottom of the sunken road
For those who cannot walk down the steep hill to the trail, you can get a view of the gully from above. However, if at all possible, climb to the bottom to really understand just how deeply the trail was worn into the ground.
In addition to being able to walk an original segment of the Natchez Trace, there is one picnic table at the Sunken Trace stop.
Note: Between this stop and the next stop to the south, North Fork Coles Creek Picnic Area—a 20-mile stretch of road—there are two unnamed pullouts with no facilities other than trash cans.
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Last updated on December 10, 2021
