Hot Springs Arkansas

We arrived in Hot Springs Arkansa on March 24, 2024. We had been in Kansas City from March 21 -24. We stayed with Dave’s brother and sister in law Steve and Cally. I wanted to catch up with a friend of college that lived in Kansas City, and Steve offered to have my friend and his wife come over to his home and he would cook dinner for us. That is what we did and it was delicious!!! It was great to catch up with everyone, we spent the night and then parked our camper in Steve’s driveway and then met up with Shanell’s sisters at the legends area on Friday evening and spent a couple days with them.

3-24-24 – we left Kansas City with our camper around 8:30 am and drove to Hot Springs, arriving around 5:00 pm. We drove into the 18 mph wind, it was great. The last 60 miles was through the mountains on scenic highway 7, otherwise known as the “white knuckle highway”. It was very scenic, and offered some challenges with narrow lanes, sharp turns, and steep grades. The F150 handled it like a champ . We are staying in a KOA campground, it is very nice. We met up with our friends the McDermotts, they were already here and had their campsite set up. After we got set up, we drove to town and checked out where the bathhouses were and the National Park.

3-25-24 – It is a rainy day. We went into Hot Springs and got in line at one of the bath houses so we could sit in the spring water. They had 4 indoor pools that ranged in temperatures from 98 degrees to 104 degrees. We were there a couple of hours, it was very relaxing. We learned that the spring water is supposed to have healing properties, and that early in history baseball teams came down here for spring training so that players could sit in the water to heal up their bodies. We had lunch at a brewery and also tried their beer offerings.

In the afternoon we went through the Gangster Museum. The tour was really neat, you went from room to room and the tour guide talked about different periods of time and had a video. Lots of history, Hot Springs was a destination for lots of folks, and organized crime. It was very interesting. It rained all day, so we didn’t hike any trails.

3-26-24 – we went to the Hot Springs National Park and hiked the trails. The trails anre located on the eastern side of the city and is part of the national park. (There are anlso trails on the western side of the city that are operated by the City of Hot Springs).

We went up in the tower where you can see for miles.

Dave walked 5 miles, and they brought me back to camp site and then the rest went and walked 8 more miles. The trails are very well marked, gravel for the most part, and well maintainted. There are some steep grades, but there are lots of parts that are gently sloping. The forest is pretty cool, and it is so great to be out in nature.

3-27-24 – we went to town and hiked the western side of the city. These trails are kept up by the City of Hot Springs and not the National Parks folks. It was very scenic. Dave walked 4 miles, and then of course the others went back to trails and walked another 6 miles. These trails were smoother and a had small rocks and were easier on the feet.

3-28-24 – Today we drove to Little Rock (about an hour away). We biked on the Arkansas River Trail into downtown Little Rock. We began at the Big Dam Bridge. The day was fabulous. We ended up riding about 35 miles and went over four different bridges. It was really fun!