While planning our route north on the map, Barry happened to notice a symbol for Magazine Mountain, at 2753' elevation, the highest point in Arkansas. Turns out, there is a state park right there, and since we wanted to see the Ozark National Forest anyway, this seemed a perfect place to stop. And this would be a breeze after the tough state high points we'd already hiked. So, leaving Hot Springs, we headed north towards Mt. Magazine State Park. As we approached from the valley floor, we could see the Ozarks and Mount Magazine up ahead. Gorgeous! The park sits up high in the Ozarks, so there are some hairpin turns to negotiate to arrive there, but nothing Pearl couldn't handle. It was a beautiful drive up. We didn't make reservations, but arriving on a Monday, there were plenty of sites available. This is not a park where you choose your own site, which we always prefer, but the site we were assigned was just fine. We might not have preferred this particular site (#1) on a weekend, as it was closest to the main park road, and there would have been more traffic. But during the week, it was no problem, and the dense vegetation muffled what small amount of road noise there was. The park was incredibly pretty, with breathtaking vistas in several spots, swoopy roads to ride our bicycles, and many hiking trails. We would definitely return and stay longer in the future, as there was plenty for us to do, but it is fairly far from towns (and with the hairpin-turn ride down the mountain in either direction), so you want to bring what you need with you. There is a lovely lodge that does have a restaurant, but we didn't try it. The park provided excellent bird habitat, and we saw many, even a road runner, which I didn't expect to see in Arkansas, as we've only seen them out west before. Here's just one of the stunning views from the park, and we'll share more in another post.
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When Barry saw that the longest trail in Hot Springs National Park was the Sunset Trail, he set a goal of hiking it, naturally! At around 10 miles, it would be a long hike already, and adding to that the fact that it didn't go all the way back to the Gulpha Gorge Campground. We'd have to add on a few additional miles to get back through Hot Springs downtown and to our site, so this was destined to be an epic hike and long day. But we love a challenge, and we'd been doing a lot of hiking lately, so I said "Sure; let's go for it!" Fortunately, the trail does start from the campground, so we did have that going for us. We got a fairly early start, but the temperature was already rising, hinting at a hot day. So we packed plenty of water and snacks, slathered on sunscreen and DEET, and set off. One of the first spots we encountered was Rick's Pond. The trail builders didn't seem to know about switchbacks, as multiple places on the trail just went straight UP the side of a mountain. Rocky, steep, these were tough going. We were very thankful for our trusty hiking poles. We took a .2 mile side spur trail to Balanced Rock. It's not quite as impressive as the formation of the same name at Arches National Park, but it was still pretty cool. The views along this trail tended to be peekaboo because of the dense woods, but there were a few nice vantage points. Barry can never resist climbing up high, while I say "Be careful!" The highest point on the trail, and indeed in the entire park, is Music Mountain at 1405'. Here's a view looking down at Hot Springs from near the summit. The trail ends at the absolutely gorgeous West Summit Overlook. By this point, I was ready to pack it in for the day, but we still had a ways to go to get back to the campground. Here are some (but not all) of the short trails we had to take to get back to the campground, plus walking through downtown Hot Springs, then hopping on our old friends, the Dead Chief Trail and Gulpha Gorge Trail. Hot Springs National Park has such a nice trail system; we were very impressed by it. In the end, we tallied 15 miles, and the first thing I did was head down to the creek behind our campsite and soak my aching feet in the cool water for awhile. Whew, that felt amazing! Barry had mentioned in the morning that he'd woken up with a sore throat, but he was determined to do the hike anyway. He is persistent that way. By the end of the day, there was no escaping the fact that he had a cold. But he was still speedier than me on the hike, as usual!
A few days later, I'd wake up with the dreaded sore throat as well. We forged onward with our travels -- and adventures -- but we haven't gotten completely back to 100% even as I write this almost two weeks later. We're getting there, though! Our first full day in Hot Springs was a busy one. We hiked into town from the Gulpha Gorge Campground via the National Park trail system, then spent most of the day wandering around and exploring the charming town. There was far too much to see in a day, but we made a good stab at it. We started off on the Gulpha Gorge trail, then took the intersecting Dead Chief Trail and the Grand Promenade into town, a hike of approximately 1.7 miles. This plaque explains that the Dead Chief Trail used to be part of an exercise trail in the 1920s. We can believe it, as it was quite steep in places. We saw our first hot spring just off the Grand Promenade behind the historic bathhouses. Yes, the water is indeed hot; 143 degrees farenheit to be exact. You can see the steam rising off it. Not only are there several hot springs in town, there are a couple of cold springs too. This particular spring provided great refreshment after our long hike, as I was able to refill my water bottle and "take the waters". It tasted pretty good! We spent quite a bit of time walking around inside the Fordyce Bathhouse, which has been fully restored and now serves as the National Park's Visitor Center. It no longer operates as a bath house but as a museum, showing us what it was like in the heyday of bath houses in the town. This grand bathhouse operated from 1915-1962. The stained glass ceiling in the large bathing room above was especially impressive. Behind most of the wooden doors in the bathing rooms were large porcelain tubs. In another part of the building, theraputic showers like the one on the right below were located. I bet that would feel pretty good after a long bike ride! This is the steam cabinet room. According to the information board, these high-temperature steam baths were believed to help with rheumatism, advanced syphilis, jaundice, and obesity. Here are a couple of the other bathhouses along "Bathhouse Row" in downtown Hot Springs. At least a couple of these are still in operation, but we didn't have a strong desire for a bath, especially on a hot day. They are grand and impressive structures, however. One of the many things we didn't know about Hot Springs was the fact that it hosted a Baseball Trail. Barry, being a baseball fan, enjoyed seeing the historical plaques around town related to one of his favorite sports. This one explains how the ball players would come to Hot Springs to "take the baths" to help sweat out all the alcohol they drank! We saw numerous baseball trail signs all over town. Here is a lot more information about the Hot Springs Baseball Trail if you are interested. The highlight of our day was lunch in an absolutely wonderful Mexican restaurant called Vina Morita. We had missed going out to eat for our 31st anniversary the week before, as we were not close to any restaurants. So, this was our special treat to belatedly celebrate our day. And what a treat it was. The spicy homemade salsas, zesty margarita flight, and chicken alambres were all delicious, and as a bonus, we got to talk about Mexico with our server, who was one of the restaurant's owners and hailed from Mexico City. And the chocolate cake dessert was over the top! This was the most authentic restaurant we've had the pleasure to try north of the border, and it took us right back to Mexico in spirit. Now, all we had to do was hike back up over the mountain and to our campground. After all our indulgences, that was not so easy as the hike into town!
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Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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