The four hundred fifty-mile foot trail known as the Natchez Trace was the lifeline through the Old Southwest. Portions of that journey can still be experienced on foot, and today five separate trails totaling over sixty miles are administered by the Natchez Trace Parkway. Mississippi, Alabama, and most of Tennessee have humid subtropical climates, with weather ranging from mild winters to hot summers. Average high temperatures reach into the high eighties in summer and into the high forties in winter. Thunderstorms are common in Mississippi, especially in the southern part of the state, and from June through November the state is occasionally affected by hurricanes moving north from the Gulf of Mexico.
