What’s Happening in Hot Springs, Arkansas

Leg 6 – Hot Springs, Arkansas 10/20/2021 – 10/24/2021

We are now back to the originally scheduled program; uh I mean itinerary. The plan was to spend a week in Hot Springs and the Ouchita (pronounced waa-shee-tuh) Mountains. Due to our detour in Texas, we shortened our time here and in the next leg of our trip, Tennessee. When I told Bill I wanted to spend some time in Arkansas, he asked why? Look at the map along our route. Mountains, lakes and lots of little dots indicating scenic drives. So it must be pretty and Hot Springs is home to a National Park.

Reservations were made at Treasure Isle RV Park. As luck would have it there was a large pull-in spot right on the lake. We took US-380 out of Frisco, hooked up with I-30 in Greenvile and said so long to Texas. The drive into Hot Springs on SR-7, US-270 and US-70 was beautiful. We arrived at the park just in time for sunset and were greeted with THE BEST camp spot of this journey. How lucky are we that our view was extraordinary and we get to enjoy this for 4 glorious days?

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Our stay at Treasure Isle was so nice and relaxing. We spent the evenings sitting by the lake, enjoying the peace and tranquility and watching the turtles bob their little heads up and down in the water. I decided this would be the perfect time to make a meal in the Dutch oven. The air was cool, the leaves just beginning to change and after all the Mexican and BBQ we were starting to crave some comfort food. Chicken Pot Pie to the rescue. Click here to learn about Chicken Pot Pie cooked in a Dutch oven using coals.

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Hot Springs National Park

Hot Springs National Park certainly was not what I was expecting. The downtown area of Hot Springs IS the National Park. Bathhouse row consists of 8 bathhouses constructed in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. They were all added to the list of National Historic Landmarks in 1987. Two of the bathhouses are still active; Buckstaff and Quapaw. Another was turned into the National Park bookstore and Fordyce is now the Visitor Center and museum. We spent a nice, leisurely afternoon strolling around town.

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Fordyce was built in 1915. It is the largest on bathhouse row and one of the most elegant. The museum consists of 3 floors and still displays all the original fixtures. Many of the windows contain the beautiful original stained glass. It was interesting to see how much bigger and nicer the men’s side of the bathhouse was as compared with the women’s. Back when the bathhouses were popular, it was not uncommon for a patron to spend all day here. Many types of services were offered; private bath, steam bath, all types of massages including the use of mercury and electricity and physical therapy. There was a beauty parlor and private rooms to rest between treatments as well as a gym. Many socialites, celebrities, athletes and even gangsters came here seeking the healing and therapeutic benefits these waters were said to have had.

At the north end of bathhouse row is Arlington Lawn which is home to a natural flowing hot water cascade. The rich mineral water flows straight from the rocks at 143° and into a pool. The water in the pool is about 104°, comparable to a hot tub. It takes about 4000 years for the water to get here. The journey started with rain and snow melt seeping into the cracks along the ridges of the Ouchita Mountains. It trickles down into the Earth’s crust. Then the water reaches a major fault on the west slope of Hot Springs Mountain and pressure sends it upward (taken from the National Park brochure). Wow! 4000 years! We stuck our hands in and found it very warm. It felt so nice.

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Another bathhouse, Superior bathhouse, is now a small craft brewery. They are the only brewery that operates on US National Park property and the only brewery in the world that uses thermal spring water in their beer. Sounds like we need to give it a try. We tried a couple of samples and settled on Northwoods and Candy Mountain. It was tasty.

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Hot Springs ORV Park

Next on the agenda was some off-roading at a private ORV park nearby; Hot Springs ORV Park. It cost us $35 (+tax) to enter and ride all day. Not a bad deal. The trail system is very well marked, but in my opinion some of the trail ratings were a little off. We did our first of three Jeep Badge of Honor trails, called Snake which was rated 2 diamonds out of 5. According to the rating system a stock jeep with stock tires was more than capable of handling this. I’m not so sure about that… We have 33” tires with a 2” lift and lockers. Bill had to engage the back lockers a couple of times to climb over some rocks. He did it though and we completed the trail. This made me a little apprehensive about the next trail that was rated 3 diamonds.

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As we were trying to find the next badge of honor trail, a group of jeeps pull up. Thank goodness (and my angel, who is always looking out for me)! They invited us to join them and even let us borrow one of their radios so we could join in on all the chatter. We have a CB but they all used 2-way radios. Rock Solid Rig and A Long Way To Go are youtubers that were leading a group from the Kansas City area thru some of the trails. We tagged along and did the next badge of honor trail, Fun Run. Turns out, it wasn’t much of a Fun Run for the leader. He was making his way up the last obstacle and broke his rear axle. The rest of the group used the by-pass and got to the top of the hill.

The team then worked to recover Rock Solid Rig and get him to a point where he could limp back to camp and replace his axle. We continued with the rest of the group and did a few more trails before heading home. Sadly, there was not enough time to make it over and do the third badge of honor trail, though. What a great group to let us ride along.

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Lake Ouchita

The last day in Hot Springs was spent driving around part of Lake Ouchita and visiting Lake Ouchita State Park. The drive took us thru part of Lake Ouchita National Forest and up to a vista overlooking the lake. This is the largest lake in Arkansas and is about 62 miles long with a lot of little islands in it. There was a place you could rent houseboats and cruise around the lake for a vacation. This might be fun one day. The lake was beautiful.

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Driving thru the state park we found the Three Sisters Springs. This was formerly a resort in the 1930’s and the water was bottled for sale and distribution. It now flows freely and makes its way down to the lake. The owner claimed each spring could cure different diseases from Constipation to Diabetes, Gall Stones to Low Blood Pressure. If you had it, this spring could cure it. Nothing was ever proven, though and there are signs around the area advising you to not drink the water. Did that stop my husband? Nope.

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I’m glad we made time to explore part of this beautiful state. We will be back to explore the Ozarks next time.

Day 100

We also celebrated a special event in Arkansas; Day 100 of Full-Time RV Living. On October 24^th we have officially been living in our rig for 100 days. The time has passed so quickly. We are enjoying this new lifestyle very much. Gone are most of the day-to-day stresses and just living for the weekend. We have time to stop and appreciate all the beauty that surrounds us. We spend more time talking and spending quality time with each other. We are meeting new people and re-connecting with old friends. The only downside to this lifestyle is that I miss seeing my kids. We talk often on the phone and that helps but it does not replace seeing them every week or two.

Oh, day 100 is also the day we realize that I accidently threw away the new South Dakota vehicle titles for the rig and jeep. We’ll leave that right there…

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