Arkansas and Oklahoma Road Trip: Part One
In May and June 2021, David and I embarked on a road trip through Arkansas and Oklahoma, which were states I had never been to before! Our first destination was Hot Springs, Arkansas. In this city lies a U.S. National Park. On one side of the street lay the city, and on the other side of the street was the national park. Before Las Vegas was built, Hot Springs was the place to be and vacation, or so someone said at the Gangster Museum of America!
Anyway, this city is quite unique. Our first stop in this city was the Hot Springs Mountain Tower, which was accessible by a road full of switchbacks! I knew that there would be some hills in Arkansas, but I did not realize that Arkansas was full of mountains! In fact, there are two mountain ranges in Arkansas: the Ouachitas and the Ozarks. Hot Springs is in the middle of the Ouachita Mountains. They are also called the Zig Zag Mountains! The tower is 216 feet tall and overlooked the city, Bathhouse Row, and the mountains. It was gorgeous views, and the weather was perfect! The current tower is the third tower to have been built on the site. There was also a floor right underneath the observation deck that had some informational exhibits about the area. We went on the day before Memorial Day, and it was quite busy! The gift shop and area to line up for the elevators was crowded, which I did not like since not everyone was wearing a mask. (Don’t worry, we’re fully vaccinated and still wore masks!)
Afterwards, we drove out to Garvan Woodland Gardens, which housed a massive botanical garden surrounded by the Ouachita River. Managed by the University of Arkansas, this garden was beautiful! There were model trains running, a peacock, waterfalls, koi fish, flowers, trees towering above us, and more! I was really impressed! I wish their café was open longer so we could have grabbed dinner there so we could have stayed longer. I loved walking around the paths in this gorgeous display of nature! I highly recommend you check it out if you’re in the area!
Next, we checked into our hotel, The Waters, which was an old building built in 1913 that use to house offices for doctors. Back in the day, doctors would prescribe their patients to bathe in the Hot Springs’ thermal waters across the street on Bathhouse Row, which supposedly had healing properties. The patients would then cross the street again to check in with their doctor. It was incredibly neat to be staying in a building with so much history! The hotel also had a Rooftop Bar, which had live music and a restaurant that we took advantage of on our first night. Stay tuned to learn more about our time in Hot Springs, Arkansas!
*I was not compensated for the reviews of any of these businesses.
