Park Units 87 & 88: Fort Donelson National Battlefield and Meriwether Lewis/Natchez Trace Parkway

8/24/17. Our last day in Tennessee, we started at Donelson National Battlefield. This is a beautiful military park with a driving/audio tour and many stops. The visitor's center is lovely - a comfy place to take a break and learn more about this time period and the local area.

This park includes a lot of land that commemorates and explains the civil war battles in this area. There is a driving/audio tour with many different stops along the way.  The stops include a confederate monument:

Log Huts for soldiers quarters in the winter:

Confederate River Batteries:

The Dover Hotel (surrendor house)

There is much to see here and the land is rolling, wooded hills. Very beautiful, well designed park and memorial.












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Next we drove for 2 hours through winding narrow roads over beautiful hills, both wooded and farmed, with many streams and rivers, to get to the Meriwether Lewis Memorial and Natchez Trace Parkway. There is a small little cabin with a bookstore and exhibits about Lewis's adventures and strange death by suicide. Interesting original letters and other artifacts from his unusual life story.

There is also a monument to Lewis - it is a stone pillar that is cut off to demonstrate his shortened life. Very odd, but so is his story - which I learned a lot about at this park. Worth the quick stop!

We hope to be back in Tennessee one day soon to visit the many other parks!