The stops
1Double Arch Bridge, from below
Natchez Trace Parkway, milepost 437, Williamson County
Finished in 1994, the bridge carries the parkway about 155 feet over Birdsong Hollow and Highway 96 on two concrete arches, the first segmentally built concrete arch bridge in the country and the winner of a Presidential Award for Design Excellence in 1995. It is closed from April 2026 to May 2027 for a permanent barrier and new paint, so this loop looks at it from below, as the Park Service suggests.
Take Highway 96 west and turn onto the parkway's ramp, which stays open; the pull-off is on the ramp, below the bridge.
- Saturday
- The parkway is open all year, day and night. The bridge itself, mileposts 437 to 440, is closed for work until May 2027.
- Admission
- Free. The parkway charges no entrance fee anywhere.
- Booking
- No booking
National Park Service
2Leiper's Fork Distillery
Leiper's Fork, Williamson County
Lee Kennedy opened the distillery in 2016, after three years spent getting Williamson County's law changed so that whiskey could be made here again. The tasting room is a restored log cabin, and the timber-framed stillhouse holds a 500-gallon copper pot still.
The drive goes a few miles south on the parkway, at its 50-mile-an-hour limit, then off at the Leiper's Fork exit. Book the 11 o'clock tour, the first of the day; the cabin's tasting room and shop fill the time either side of it.
- Saturday
- Friday to Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday to 5; closed Monday and Tuesday. Tours start on the hour from 11 to 5.
- Admission
- The hour's tour with a tasting is $24 for adults, who must be 21 with ID, and $12 for ages 12 to 20 and for anyone not drinking. No one under 12.
- Booking
- Book online and arrive ten minutes early. On Tuesday, October 20, the coming Saturday's 1 p.m. tour had sold out and two others had one or two places left.
Official site
3Leiper's Fork
Leiper's Fork, Williamson County
The Leipers Fork Historic District has been on the National Register since 1998, Gothic Revival and Folk Victorian houses and shops along Old Hillsboro Road. Fox & Locke, the general store Jack Fox and Martin Locke opened in 1947, was Puckett's from 1960 and took its old name back in 2022; it has free music on Saturdays from noon to 3.
Lunch at Fox & Locke, where the Saturday music starts at noon, then the shops along the road. Parking is tight at the restaurant and legal along Hillsboro Road except where signed. Our Leiper's Fork guide has the rest of the village.
- Saturday
- The village keeps no hours of its own. On Saturdays Patina Home & Garden and Dwell and Den are open 10 to 5 and the Copper Fox Gallery 10:30 to 5; Fox & Locke, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Admission
- Free.
- Booking
- Fox & Locke takes no reservations except for its ticketed shows; lunch is walk-in.
Visit Franklin
Before you go
The distillery's Saturday tours sell out days ahead, so book first and set the morning by it. No one under 12 may go on the tour, and the adult price is for those 21 and over with ID.
The Double Arch Bridge and the parkway from milepost 437 to 440 are closed for work until May 2027. After that, the loop can start by driving over it from Highway 100.
The last stop outdoors, Double Arch Bridge, from below, ends at 10:30 a.m.. The earliest sunset there on a Saturday this loop runs is 4:34 p.m., on November 28, so the day's walking is done in daylight every week of the year it runs.
How we know
The timetable is worked out from the route and the time at each stop, and checked against every stop's Saturday hours and the sunset for every Saturday in the twelve months after the hours were read. The drive times are a router's, with no traffic: leave room.
- Double Arch Bridge, from below. National Park Service, the Double Arch Bridge; National Park Service, the bridge's closing; National Park Service, road and site status. Hours: as posted, read October 20, 2026.
- Leiper's Fork Distillery. Leiper's Fork Distillery, our story; Leiper's Fork Distillery, Leiper's Fork. Hours: as posted, read October 20, 2026.
- Leiper's Fork. Tennessee Historical Commission, the 2012 boundary increase; Fox & Locke, its history; Fox & Locke, free music; Fox & Locke, questions. Hours: as posted, read October 20, 2026.
- Before you go. National Park Service, road and site status; National Park Service, Natchez Trace questions; Leiper's Fork Distillery, booking.
- The drive. Valhalla (valhalla1.openstreetmap.de) on OpenStreetMap, routed October 21, 2026.
- The photograph. The Double Arch Bridge over Birdsong Hollow, from below. Photo: National Park Service, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
All 8 loops
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