Trace/Natchez/ State Park 1

5/2-5/5 Natchez State Park, Natchez, MS Cost $18 for electric and water. This campground is about ten miles north of historic Natchez just off the Trace. There are two loops set back from a lake. We stayed in loop B where most of the RV’s were camped on level cement pads – this section was redone about five years ago and it is quite nice. Sites are not all that private but the woods do surround you with nature hikes to and around the lake. The campground offers boating, cabins, disc golf, fishing, hiking, laundry, and wildlife viewing. We stayed here for three nights while we toured the historic sites in Natchez and Washington. This is the second campground that we have found stray dogs left behind by “snowbirds”. Another camper next to us who lives in Mexico during the winter and Canada in the summer said it is a big problem and it is happening more and more. Campers just leave cats and dogs behind when they head home after the winter. Sad!
As we drove down the Trace from Port Gibson we stopped at one of the original plantations and Inns (Mt. Locust) along the Trace restored and managed by the National Park Service. The volunteer ranger told us that the Jeff Busby Campground on the Trace where we had planned to stay during those violent storms but drove 200 miles south to try to get away from it had been closed down. One of the tornadoes tore up trees through that whole section of the Trace and one tree landed on a tent camper and killed him. She said that if we were to drive through that section now trees were down and you can see so many trees hanging over the Trace ready to fall. It is totally devastating! Most of the NPS employees were all in that area trying to help clean up that mess and also investigating the death of the camper. We were lucky. The news reports down here have reported that in the last 60 years there have been over 270 tornadoes which means that the state of Mississippi has about four per year. Yet, this April alone there have been over 115 tornadoes.
Stopped in the small village of Washington off the Trace to visit the Historic Jefferson College which is being restored by the state. The grounds are beautiful and there are a number of buildings that are now open for the public to see on a self guided tour. Prospere Hall has a museum in it with pictures of the college when Jefferson Davis went here as a boy. It was the first all male prep school- college in Mississippi. A dorm and the old kitchens are open. The other buildings are still there being restored and there is also a short nature trail that goes through the woods to St. Catherine Creek.