Why this park
Devil's Backbone is a block of Western Highland Rim forest in Lewis County, near Hohenwald, and the only way in is the Natchez Trace Parkway. Its trailhead sits at milepost 394, some 50 miles down the Parkway from the northern end near Nashville. The park's page counts more than 1,500 acres, with steep ridges, small streams and oak-hickory woods between about 700 and 1,000 feet.
What makes the place worth drawing is the lay of the land, and the name it took from the road. The trail follows a ridgetop, drops into a hollow with a small creek winding along its floor, and climbs back out. Travelers once called the Natchez Trace itself the Devil's Backbone.
In a 2022 account of the trail, the travel writer Tom Adkinson lists sycamore, tulip poplar, shortleaf pine and chestnut, white and red oak along the way. The park's page names woodland birds, box turtles, raccoons and white-tailed deer, and says the forest has been mostly undisturbed for 60 years at least.
The story
The road is far older than the park. The National Park Service says people have used the Natchez Trace corridor for some 10,000 years, a web of trails through Natchez, Chickasaw and Choctaw country. In 1801, the Tennessee Encyclopedia says, the Chickasaws and Choctaws agreed to a federal road across their lands, and boatmen who had sold their cargoes and flatboats downriver made their way home on it. A little over three miles north, at milepost 397.4, the Park Service marks a boundary of the Chickasaw lands ceded to the United States in 1805 and 1816.
It was a hard road. Robbers worked it early on, Samuel Mason among them, though the encyclopedia says robberies had fallen off by 1805 and a myth of violence has clung to the Trace since. Enslaved people were forced down it to the slave market at Natchez, the Park Service notes, and bandits sometimes seized them to sell or ransom. Some travelers called the road the Devil's Backbone for its dangers, and the park's page adds that on a map the old route looks like a spine across three states. By the late 1820s steamboats and new roads had taken most of its traffic.
In 1938 Congress brought the Parkway into the National Park System, and the Park Service still runs it; the park beside it is run by Tennessee State Parks. Lewis County is named for Meriwether Lewis, who died on the Trace in 1809 at Grinder's Stand, about eight miles south. Hohenwald, the county seat, whose name means high forest, grew with the help of Swiss settlers.
The land was acquired in the 1960s, the park's page says, with a state park in mind. It opened instead in 1997 as Devil's Backbone State Natural Area, about 950 acres kept for its forest, which Adkinson called "a relatively rare example" of the Western Highland Rim's woods. In November 2024 the Lewis County Herald reported that the state would make it a state park, and in March 2026 the park was dedicated and opened.
When to go, and what to wear
The nearest NOAA station with temperature normals for 1991 to 2020 is at Hohenwald, about eight miles southwest and at about 980 feet, close to the park's own height.
Spring is wet. April averages a high near 71°F and a low near 47°F, and March, April and May each bring over five inches of rain, so pack a rain shell. The park rates the trail moderate to strenuous, on natural ground with an elevation change of 220 feet, so wear shoes that grip.
Summer is warm, with July averaging a high near 87°F and a low near 68°F. The park asks hikers to carry enough water. The CDC says ticks are most active from April through September, in grassy, brushy and wooded places, and advises permethrin-treated clothing, an EPA-registered repellent and a full tick check afterward. A light long-sleeve tee and long pants are a good start.
Fall is the driest season, and September the driest month. October averages a high near 72°F and a low near 48°F, so a sweatshirt over a tee covers a cool start.
Winter is cold. January averages a high near 48°F and a low near 28°F, and December is the wettest month. Dress in layers, with a long-sleeve tee, a sweatshirt, a windproof jacket and a hat.
Know before you go
- There are no restrooms in the park. The Park Service lists the nearest on the Parkway at milepost 385.9, about eight miles south.
- The Parkway pull-off at milepost 394 is closed to RVs, and commercial vehicles and trucks rated over one ton may not use the Parkway. Cyclists may ride in the full lane, so pass them with care.
- The park is open for day use, and the trail in daylight hours. Bicycles stay on the Parkway. The park follows State Natural Area rules and asks visitors to stay on the trail and leave no trace. There is no paved or accessible trail.
- Hours, fees and closures change, so check Devil's Backbone State Park's page before you go.
Sources: National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway, "History & Culture," "Brochures" (Parkway Highlights in Tennessee), "Recreational Vehicles" and the lesson answer sheet "Names of the Natchez Trace"; Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Natchez Trace" (John D. W. Guice), "Natchez Trace Parkway" (Holly Anne Rine) and "Lewis County" (Marjorie Graves); Nancy Stephens, "New Tennessee State Park opens along Natchez Trace," Main Street Media of Tennessee (April 7, 2026); "Popular stop along the trace gets upgrade," Lewis County Herald (November 14, 2024); Tom Adkinson, "Hiking along the Devil's Backbone on the Natchez Trace Parkway," Knoxville Daily Sun (January 14, 2022); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Preventing Tick Bites"; The Municipal, "German and Swiss Settlers: Hohenwald, Tenn." (May 4, 2017); NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Hohenwald station; Wikipedia; Devil's Backbone State Park, tnstateparks.com.
