Arkansas

We stayed in Hot Springs, Arkansas for 8 nights. This was the first place we felt like we were vacationing so to speak. Not moving on the next day, we could really see and experience things Hot Springs and learn about all it had to offer. 

Hot Springs National Park is a park composed of two mountains with a city in the middle. It has grown with time and oozed out of the space between the two mountains but its a very unique National Park experience. The east mountain is the mountain with the hot springs that flow down and at base of this mountain is where “bathhouse” row is located. Bathhouse row is what it sounds like…there are eight bathhouses where back in the day people would go and take “baths”. This is comparable to going to the gym or using a sauna nowadays….they did not go to get cleaned but went to better their ailing bodies. Now days a few of these are still functioning as a bathhouse, one a restaurant, one a hotel, one a gift shop/ museum. We each had our own afternoon at the bathhouse and would highly recommend the unique experience!!

Quaffing the elixir aka….drinking the water….yes you can drink the water that comes out of these springs. There is a site to fill a bottle or a jug or if you’re a local a week’s worth of jugs. It was odd to us that this is commonplace but there were ALWAYS people filling up water jugs. It does taste different but we couldn’t tell the difference in hydration/healing that came with it 🤪

Hiking. We walked around in the woods for 2-3 hours 2 days in a row with our crew. Very doable for the littles. There was one piece of the trek on the West Mountain that had a pretty steep grade but we conquered it! We packed a backpack lunch of sandwiches both days and would hike until we needed lunch, eat and rest and keep on going. 

Hot Springs. Literally hot steaming water coming out of a hole in the mountain. It was very unreal. The water is roughly 130 degrees. This water is heated by cracks under the earth’s surface that are hot….because the magma is closer to the Earth’s surface due to the crack…so when the water gets near there it is warmed and then comes out….hot! 

Trejo’s Mexican Restaurant. If you’ve only had Mexican restaurant food once since August. And even if it’s Tuesday and kids eat free. And even if its lunch time and so you’ll get the best bang for you buck. And even if it’s the closest Mexican restaurant to the campground. And even if there is a review that says on a cross country trip they drove three hours out of their way to eat there…..DO NOT GO. Learn from us. The salsa was alright but everything else less than average and just a pure disappointment.

Cedar Glades. If you’re in the area we would highly recommend taking the 20 minute drive to Cedar Glades park. It has soooo much to offer. Our highlight was the tree house. It had a tone of thing… bike trails everywhere, trick riding areas for bikes, rock wall climbing, play ground, disc golf, hiking trails etc. And if you go on a misty weekday morning you might be lucky enough to find yourselves to be the only ones there like we did!

Campground Review:

Treasure Isle RV Park

Site- we spent a little money and upgraded to the lakeside site. Normal site was $36/ night. Ours was $48/night. If you stay 6 nights you get the 7th free so our average nightly cost was $42/night. 

Details: laundry facility, playground. The lake was down due to the off-season (this allows people a chance to fix their docks etc). We had a dock right outside our site. The boys practiced their casting daily and loved waking up and getting to look at the ducks and geese. 20 mins west of downtown. 

Would also check out Gulpha Gorge Campground…right in the park with a creek that runs alongside it. Full hook ups $30/night.