Adventures in Hot Springs (Pt 1)

I've shared on here several times before about how travel is very important to our family. Each year, we try to travel and make experiencing new things a priority. After our big trip toward the end of 2021, we hadn't yet planned a trip for 2022 by the time Chris resigned from his job (you can read all about that here and here). That turned out to be a good thing considering we didn't know how long he would be unemployed or where our finances would stand once he started working again. 

So, after being without an income for the first six weeks of the year, we decided to stick with a short getaway as our 2022 vacation. We landed on Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas as our destination. We reserved a super cute little house for three nights over what was initially scheduled to be the twins' fall break. I word it that way because the district changed the calendar (after it had been approved) and moved fall break to the week prior to our trip after we had already made our reservations and plans. Because of this, our girls ended up getting two fall breaks! 

Since we only had a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to spend in Hot Springs, we wanted to maximize our time. We decided to leave our house around 6:30am on Thursday, October 20th to make the six hour drive to Hot Springs in hopes that we would have a good part of the afternoon to explore. 

Our first stop after leaving the house was in the Quachita National Forest. The fall foliage on the drive through Arkansas was beautiful!

We parked our van and did just a little bit of walking around the recreation area. There was an old bridge there that was just lovely.

Since I'd been having so much fun making shirts with my Cricut machine, I decided we all needed matching shirts for the trip. I love how they turned out!

The walking felt so nice after being in the car for several hours!

At about 12:30pm, we rolled into Hot Springs. We had packed food to eat, so we parked at a local parking garage not far from Bathhouse Row and quickly ate lunch. We were eager to explore and didn't want to waste time on food, haha. 

Hot Springs National Park is unique for several reasons, but one reason is that the National Park encompasses Bathhouse Row which is part of the town of Hot Springs. It felt very strange to us to cross the National Park boundary by crossing the street.

We made it!

On the corner of Bathhouse Row is a fountain with water from one of the hot springs. This water was more warm than hot, but there were several other fountains with water of different temperatures. We saw several people filling jugs with the spring water. 

Brianna, Brecklyn, Brooke, and Brenson

Our first stop after visiting the sign and fountain was the Fordyce Bathhouse in Bathhouse Row which is home to the Hot Springs National Park Visitor's Center and Museum. Here, we all got to sample spring water.

Brecklyn

She didn't love the way it tasted.

Brooke (she thought it was fine)

Brenson

Brianna

Brecklyn was the only one who was a little adverse to the water . . . no surprise there!

Once we walked around the Visitor's Center and sampled the water, we decided to go back outside and walk Bathhouse Row. It was a gorgeous day!

Ozark Bathhouse

Quapaw Bathhouse

This day was our 21st wedding anniversary, which made it extra special!

Lamar Bathhouse

We weren't sure if we wanted to walk through the museum portion of the Fordyce Bathhouse, but decided after seeing Bathhouse Row that we would go back and do it. 

Brooke, Chris, Brecklyn, Bren, and Bri standing in the bathhouse

Brecklyn

Brooke

Bren

Bri

Overall, I will say that we weren't really impressed with the bathhouse museum. It felt . . . shady? I'm really not sure how I would describe it. While the stained glass ceiling was beautiful, there were also things in it that we didn't want our kids to see. In addition to that, there were photos of massages and other activities (nothing too revealing) that felt like there was a lot more going on in these bathhouses than what it seemed on the surface. 

The history of the boiler room and how the water was moved around was more interesting!

And, we were able to see one of the original hot springs that the facility was built around.

Better view of the hot spring

Just behind Bathhouse Row is the Grand Promenade. This is a walkway that allows you to see some of the springs and fountains up close.

The walkway was really pretty!

Brecklyn, Brenson, and Brooke in front of a spring

More springs . . . we could feel the heat coming off of this one!

Another spring . . . this one was cool enough to touch but still warm

It's pretty fascinating how the water comes out of the ground steaming!

The Grand Promenade is only about a half mile long, so it didn't take us long to walk it. However, after a small lunch and a busy afternoon, we were all hungry. We decided to walk back to our van and find a place to eat an early dinner!

We decided on Phil's Family Kitchen. Yum!

It was about 4:00pm when we finished dinner, so we went to find our rental house. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the house, we couldn't get in the door. The code we were sent would not work, and matters were further complicated by a child who was desperate to use the bathroom. We ended up leaving the house, driving to a convenience store to use the bathroom, and returning to the house to try and work out the issue with entrance. A few phone calls and nearly an hour later, Chris got a new code, and we were able to access the house. Hooray!

We spent the remainder of the evening getting settled and playing a few games together. The house was just perfect for the weekend. While the kitchen was very small, the living room and dining room were open to each other and made for a nice space. The primary suite (with bathroom) was on the main floor, and upstairs there were two more bedrooms and a bathroom. One bedroom had bunk beds, so Brianna and Bren shared that one. The other bedroom had a queen bed for Brooke and Brecklyn. Plus, it was decorated super cute!

The next morning (Friday, October 21st), we cooked breakfast at the house before heading out for the day. We had planned meals and brought all the groceries we needed with us, which worked out great. After breakfast, we drove back toward the National Park and parked in the parking garage we had used the previous day. 

We decided our first adventure of the day would be hiking to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower. We had to start at the Grand Promenade.

Brecklyn, Brooke, Brianna, and Brenson on the Grand Promenade

More hot springs . . . do you see a pattern here :-)?

From the Grand Promenade, we took the Peak Trail toward the Mountain Tower. It was, once again, a gorgeous day, and the scenery was beautiful!

The entire hike from the parking garage to the Mountain Tower was about 2 miles. At this point - where the Peak Trail branches to go to the Mountain Tower - was an additional .2 miles. 

Hot Springs Mountain Tower

Right as we were coming to the Mountain Tower, a large group of Corvettes drove by us on the road that the trail follows in this area. Brianna found them to be extremely obnoxious, and I have a feeling she will harbor her hate for Corvettes for a long time :-). I will say, it was kind of strange to be walking on a trail and have cars driving by you on the road. In several places, the trail even crossed the road. 

We visited the gift shop in the Mountain Tower, then paid the fee to ride the elevator to the observation deck at the top of the tower. 

The views were worth the fee!

Aerial view of the town of Hot Springs

The mountains were lovely.

From the observation deck, we could see the parking garage where our van was parked. It seemed really far away!

The kids loved the 360 degree views!

So pretty!

At the base of the tower is a pavilion and a picnic area. I felt like the pavilion was unique and had almost an Asian flair to it. 

More great views from the pavilion

Love exploring with my kiddos!

Chris and Bren are always drawn to maps. I'm thankful for this as I never worry about getting lost with the two of them!

Even though we had only hiked about 2 miles, we had taken our time and enjoyed the journey. This meant that by the time we hiked and visited the Mountain Tower, it was time for lunch. We had carried lunch with us, so we took advantage of the picnic area and refreshed our bodies.

Once we finished lunch, we took the Short Cut Trail back to the Grand Promenade and back to our van. This part of the hike was shorter but had much steeper inclines in spots. We also walked it much faster than we had on the way to the Mountain Tower. 

After arriving back at our van, we drove northeast to the Gulpha Gorge Trailhead for another hike.

The Gulpha Gorge Trail was nice, but steeper than we had anticipated.

There were even a few switchbacks.

From the Gulpha Gorge Trail, we decided to take the Goat Rock Trail to Goat Rock. I think we had been on the Gulpha Gorge Trail for about .3 miles before veering off toward Goat Rock. 

Love the fall foliage!

Brecklyn, Brooke, Brenson, and Brianna

Brecklyn and Brooke

I'm not sure what I was expecting at Goat Rock, but what we saw was not it. The views were lovely, to be sure, but I guess I thought Goat Rock would be bigger or more majestic than it was.

Brenson, Brooke, Chelle, Brecklyn, and Brianna at Goat Rock

As you can see, the trails weren't smooth. That was another surprise to me.

Momma and Brooke . . . I had to break out my hiking pole!

Brianna and Brenson soaking up the beautiful trees

Brecklyn and Daddy

Once we got back to our van at the Gulpha Gorge Trailhead, we all agreed that we were done for the day! We headed back to our house for an evening of relaxation.

There were two puzzles at the house that we tried to put together, but both were missing many pieces. 

Before we had left the house for the day, we put baked potato soup in the slow cooker. It was SO nice to have a warm and delicious meal to eat that evening! One thing of note here . . . you can barely see in the photo below that Chris was eating his soup out of a small casserole dish. We never know exactly what we're going to get with these rental houses, and this particular one only had five bowls in the "fully furnished kitchen"!

We finished the evening by eating popcorn and watching Life of Pi, while also still trying to work the frustrating puzzles. It was just what we needed after a day of hiking!

After two great days, we still had two more days to enjoy our trip. Stayed tuned . . . I'll post about that part of our getaway soon!