Natchez Trace Parkway: Tupelo - June 29th to July 1st, 2023
Natchez Trace is a National Parkway which follows an historical foot path from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. It is 444 miles long, crossing through three states. This post is the third of four posts on the Natchez Trace, covering Mileposts 305 to 195, from Tishomingo State Park to just before Jeff Busby Campground, both in Mississippi. We camped southeast of Ackerman at Choctaw Lake Recreation Area.
Thursday we continued driving down the Natchez Trace Parkway. The detour from the day before ended just south of Tishomingo State Park. We stopped at the Tenn-Tom Waterway, the Pharr Mounds, and the Confederate Gravesites before driving into the town of Tupelo.
The Tenn-Tom Waterway is a man-made canal that connects the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River. Even though the waterway was recommended back in the 1700’s, construction on the waterway didn’t start until 1972 and was completed in 1985. Locks along the waterway allow barges loaded with goods to reach the Gulf of Mexico from the Tennessee River.
Although the exact purpose is unknown, the Pharr Mounds are believed to have some sort of religious significance. They were built between 1 and 200 AD. Today, descendents of the people who built them, the Chickasaw, still feel a strong connection to the Pharr Mounds.
The 13 Confederate gravesites are of unknown soldiers who were buried along the Natchez Trace. Evidence of the original trail is evident right alongside the graves.
We parked near the historic district of downtown Tupelo. To get out of the heat, we ate a lovely lunch at the Fairpark Grill. While we were waiting for a table, we researched campground options. Our original plan was to camp at the Jeff Busby Campground right on the Natchez Trace Parkway. However, there were excessive heat warnings for the next several days and Jeff Busby has no electrical hookups, which means no air conditioning for us. We found an alternative, the Choctaw Lake Recreation Area in Tombigbee National Forest. It was too late to get a camp site reservation, but it looked like there were plenty of sites open for first come/first serve, with hook ups. It also looked like the campground did what is called Scan & Pay, so Ann made sure she had the recreation.gov app loaded on her phone and logged in. The Scan & Pay should work even without an internet connection or cell service, but if there is no cell service, then you can’t download the app.
Fairpark Grill has a pretty large menu, but we both ordered the Pepper Jack Philly. Of course, Ann got hers with sweet potato fries. All the food was very tasty. The meat on our Philly’s tasted like nicely grilled steak. Delicious.
After lunch, we braved the heat and strolled the few blocks of the historic downtown area. Tupelo is the childhood home of Elvis Presley. His mother bought him his first guitar from Tupelo Hardware. There are certainly plenty of tributes to Elvis around downtown.
Of course we ducked into a shop for dessert. The place was across from the courthouse, called Crave. We were looking for an ice cream shop, but settled on a coffee shop that Google said had ice cream on their menu. They didn’t serve ice cream by itself, but they did have some desserts topped with ice cream. However, the skillet cookies and skillet brownies took 30 minutes to prepare. We really didn’t want to wait around for 30 minutes, but gave in to the temptation of sitting longer in the air conditioning. The skillet brownie, hot out of the oven, topped with scoops of vanilla ice cream was worth the wait. Luckily, Keith didn’t order one because the skillet was more than enough for two people to share. We finished it off in no time.
After stopping for groceries and gas, we got back on the Natchez Trace Parkway. It was getting late in the day and we wanted to make sure we arrived at Choctaw Lake in time to grab a camp site. We only made two more stops along the parkway, the Chickasaw Village Site and the Bynum Mounds. The Chickasaw Village Site was rather disappointing. There were a handful of old interpretative signs that were worn and hard to read. The Bynum Mounds were ancient mounds, with geometrical precision.
We pulled into Choctaw Lake after 5 pm. There were still sites available. There were envelopes at the board at the entrance to the recreation area with a place to leave money for a camp site or day use fee. We grabbed an envelope, but didn’t pay. We wanted to drive back into the campground to make sure there was a site available first. We found a site we liked and decided to try the Scan & Pay instead of driving back to the park entrance to pay. There was a bar code on the camp site post. Ann had no problems paying for the camp site in the app. She was even able to enter our Senior Interagency Pass for a discount. At the end of the process, the app allows you to save a copy of the receipt in your photos on your phone, so you have something to show in case you need to prove you paid. There was even some cell service, so the payment went through immediately and we received an email confirmation. However, the app said we were paying $11 for the night (with the discount), but the email receipt said it was $14.50. Even with the $1.50 transaction fee, there is still a $2 discrepency. We’re not sure why.
Another difference with the Scan & Pay versus using the pay envelope besides the transaction fees, is that you can only pay for one night at a time. We wanted to stay for three nights, so we had to pay each day, along with two more transaction fees. We’re not sure when the app allows you to select the next day. It is definitely before the check out time. We were able to pay for the night in the morning of the same day. Perhaps it opens up at midnight? Be careful that you select the right date. We noticed that in the morning, before check out time, the previous night’s date was still able to be selected.
The camp sites at Choctaw Lake are nicely spaced. The campground is next to a lake, with a boat ramp at the end of the campground. We had a nice view of the smaller lake, but we viewed it from inside Red Tail (our Winnebago EKKO), as it was too hot to sit outside. The temperatures did not cool down enough at night to turn off the air conditioner, like it had at Tishomingo State Park. So we ran the air conditioner all night. We ran it with the fan set to manual high, instead of automatic, so the noise was more constant, allowing us to sleep a little easier.
Friday we sat outside in the morning to enjoy the view before it got too hot. There is an easy trail that circles the lake, so we hit the trail at 9 am before it got too hot. It was a nice, flat, gravel trail that you could either walk or ride a bike on. Even though we didn’t have to work very hard to walk the trail, we were still drenched in sweat by the time we got back. However, there was a little bit of a breeze, so our sweat did its job and kept us somewhat comfortable. We completed the three miles with an elevation gain of only 96 feet, in one hour and 20 minutes.
The rest of the day we spent inside Red Tail. Keith worked on some German lessons. Ann worked on blog posts. We both worked on future travel plans.
We sat outside in the morning again on Saturday. Then Ann got her paddle board out and took it around the lake. She worked up a good sweat pumping the board up, not that it takes a lot of effort to pump it up, it was just that hot already. Once she was out on the lake, she felt fine. There was a breeze to keep her cool. However, that same breeze also blew her board around, giving her more of a workout to get where she wanted to go.
Back at Tishomingo State Park, Ann tried a new tether to hold her iPhone while she paddled. The tether didn’t make her phone any more water proof nor floatable, but she could see and manipulate the screen easier than with the pouch she was using before. However, the tether crossed over one of her phone’s two camera lenses and the leash made the camera hang down pretty low. But the deal breaker was that the tether just didn’t seem very secure. She noticed at one point that one of the corners of the tether had slipped off her phone.
Not wanting to lose her phone at the bottom of the lake, Ann switched back to the waterproof, floatable pouch (paid link) for her phone while she paddled at Choctaw Lake. Yes, there was a lot of glare and sometimes the screen on the phone did not respond to her touches, but she felt it was more secure. She considered not taking her phone with her at all, but wanted some way to communicate with Keith if she needed to. She could have taken the Garmin InReach, but that seemed a little extreme for such a small lake. With her phone, she could at least attempt to take a picture or video every now and then.
Ann was done paddling about 10:30 am. She worked up a sweat again as she carried the board from the boat dock back to our camp site. However, she cooled right back down when she hosed herself down with the water sprayer after she was finished rinsing off the paddle board and equipment. The sprayer and hose (paid link) we bought earlier worked great to hook directly up to the water spigot at our camp site.
Again, the rest of the day was spent on blogs, language learning, and future season trip planning.
Even though Choctaw Lake Recreation Area was not part of Natchez Trace Parkway, it was a great place to camp. The beautiful setting was relaxing and not too crowded. The only thing that would have made it better would be a little cooler weather.
Check out our related video: Natchez Trace Parkway: Tupelo
(Ann)