Written by Chris Lancia
Clarksville, TN – For Great Outdoors Month, take a trip to Land Between the Lakes and explore nature.
A route named a ‘trace’ has a plain definition: a path worn into the earth by something moving along it, often by wildlife such as buffalo and bison. Pioneers followed the route, and the route eventually became county roads or state highways.
The Woodlands Trace National Scenic Byway runs through Land Between the Lakes (LBL), and is often called ‘The Trace’ by those who’ve driven it. It follows a corridor that has been a through-line in this landscape for generations.
LBL sits seventy-five minutes west of Clarksville, where Stewart County, Tennessee, touches Kentucky. It’s easy to pass the exit on I-24 without realizing what you’re missing.
That’s the thing about a place that’s been there forever. It doesn’t advertise. It waits. 170,000 acres. 300 miles of shoreline. 500 miles of trails. Herds of bison and elk free-roaming a prairie. A working farm that transports you to 1850.
All within a morning’s drive.
The Farm That Time Kept
The first stop is the Homeplace 1850s Working Farm, which sits just inside the Tennessee line tucked into the rolling hills off The Trace near Dover. It’s billed as a living history museum, which is technically accurate but undersells it.
The farm is a collection of 16 original log structures saved from around the local area, most of them dating back to the 1850s. They’re surrounded by working gardens, livestock, and a crew of costumed interpreters who are running the farm rather than just standing around waiting to answer questions.
In June, that means summer planting including okra, tomatoes, and beans. The kitchen hearth is active. Someone is working the loom. Someone is splitting wood by hand with a tool that looks medieval yet still works.
The pace is slow. There’s nowhere to rush, and nothing that rewards that. An interpreter at the blacksmith shop will talk to you for 45 minutes if you let him. The free-ranging ducks and chickens will stop you on the path.
Plan for a couple of hours, bring water, wear shoes you can walk in, and don’t be in a hurry. And dogs on a leash are welcome!
The Drive North
Get back on The Trace heading north, and the character of the road shifts. There’s almost no traffic. The speed limit encourages you to look around, which is the point. This byway is part of the National Scenic Byway program for a reason, and the reason is it was never built for speed. It was built for passage.
The lakes appear and disappear through the trees on either side. Kentucky Lake to the west, Lake Barkley to the east, which are two of the largest man-made bodies of water in the country. They’re close enough that you can almost feel them pressing in. The peninsula between them is what gives this place its name and its sense of stillness.
Two Thousand Pounds of Argument for Slowing Down
12 miles from the Homefront is the Elk and Bison Prairie, a 700-acre enclosed grassland. The entrance is easy to miss if you’re not watching for it.
Five dollars per vehicle buys you a 3.5-mile loop through open prairie on a paved road designed to be driven slowly. There are pull-offs. There are interpretive signs. And there are bison. Enormous, unhurried, occasionally right in the middle of the road, and they will look directly at your car with a calm that suggests you are, from their perspective, a minor inconvenience at best.
In June, calves are newly born and stay close to their mothers in the tall grass. The prairie is green, and insects and birds are singing. By midday, the herds drift toward shade to avoid the heat. To catch them out in the prairie, it’s best to arrive in early morning or late afternoon. The loop takes about an hour, and most people drive it twice.
There is something that happens in the Elk and Bison Prairie that doesn’t happen many other places within driving distance of Clarksville: the scale tips. The animals are bigger than the car. The prairie is bigger than the animals. The sky is bigger than the prairie. You are suddenly the smallest thing there.
The Quiet Part
The Woodlands Nature Station sits in the northern part of LBL, nestled between Honker and Hematite Lakes in Kentucky.
The station houses native wildlife that can’t be released, including great horned owls, red-tailed hawks, river otters, foxes, and bobcats. It also houses staff who are happy to talk about them.
The main draw is that the station participates in the federal Red Wolf Recovery Program. There are fewer than 300 red wolves left on the planet. Some of them are here, being bred carefully to restore the population. You can see them through the fence.
From the station, the Hematite Lake Trail loops two and a half easy miles around the lake through boardwalks, bridges, and some of the quietest forest in western Tennessee. The Honker Lake Trail covers four and a half miles if you have the legs and the afternoon for it. Both are free. Kayak rentals are available at the station for those who want to get on the water.
This is the part of the day when most people stop taking photos and just look. Let it be.
The Drive Home
The light on the Trace going south in the late afternoon is different from the Trace going north in the morning. The shadows are longer, the color is deeper, and the road feels like it knows you’ve been somewhere.
That’s what a trace does, in the end. It doesn’t just take you somewhere. It keeps a record that you went. The buffalo went. The settlers went. And now you, windows down, seventy-five minutes from home, carrying back whatever a day in a place like this leaves on you.
Which is more than you’d think.
Plan Your Visit
Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area
Drive: Approx. 75 minutes from Clarksville via US-79 West to Dover, then north on TN-49/The Trace
Entrance: No fee to enter LBL; individual attractions have small fees
The Homeplace: $7.00/adults, kids under 16 free | Open March–November | Best April–October
Elk & Bison Prairie: $5.00/vehicle | Open dawn to dusk year-round | Best sightings: early morning or after 4:00pm in summer
Woodlands Nature Station: $7.00/adults, $3.00 ages 5–12, under 5 free | Kayak rentals available
Trails: Hematite Lake Trail (2.2 mi, easy) — Honker Lake Trail (4.5 mi, moderate) — both free
Food: No food options inside LBL — eat in Dover before you enter, or pack a picnic
Dogs: Welcome on leash on trails; must stay in vehicle at the Prairie
June bonus: Bison and elk calves on the prairie; summer planting underway at the Homeplace
