The Natchez Trace Parkway crosses Bear Creek inside Tishomingo State Park, near milepost 304.7, on a stream that drains north to the Tennessee River rather than south to the Gulf by way of the Tombigbee. Bear Creek rises in northwest Alabama, loops north through the corner of Mississippi and runs back into Alabama to join the Tennessee, about 80 miles in all, with a mean flow of about 1,126 cubic feet per second at Bishop, Alabama. A 2014 Park Service assessment describes its watershed as holding a uniquely rich fish assemblage, mixing species typical of the lower Tennessee River system with species of the Upper Tombigbee.
A survey of the Alabama part of the basin from 1998 to 2000 reported 48 fish species within about 10 kilometers of the parkway. Fish sampling inside the park took three samples in the Bear watershed, and the 2014 assessment ranked the condition of its fish assemblage as fair, with water quality rated good: Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality samples taken on Bear Creek along the parkway between 2008 and 2012 fell within state standards, and the Bear Creek at Tishomingo station showed greater acid-neutralizing capacity than the other stations in the watershed.
The Park Service names lands in the Bear Creek drainage among its chief concerns for feral hog damage, because they support endangered fish and mussels.
Getting there
34.6122, -88.1904
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
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