Road-Trip to Arkansas

Like probably most of you, 2020 has pretty much bulldozed over most of my plans! We started out so hopeful for the best year yet, but there have been so many moments challenging moments and things that have occurred this year. Let’s pray that things turn around or at least that 2021 will be a much better year. Some of our plans consisted of big trips, like Europe (I have never been to Europe) and India, plus several smaller trips. I suffer severely from wanderlust and at this point, I will take going anywhere but here. Fortunately I was able to convince my husband to do a road-trip. Let me tell you, we were both extremely concerned. Mostly because our 5 and 2 year old, and even more mostly, cause the 2 year old. He is very active and hardly likes the car. He loves to go, but it’s got to be quick and easy. We had plans to do Utah, but due to New Mexico requiring a 14 day travel quarantine from our hot spot state, it was going to be tough to make it work. So Arkansas was thrown on the table and it turns out to not be that far from Texas. The furthest city on the agenda, Eureka Springs, was only 10 hours (okay not only, but compared to 19 hours for Arches National Park, it works).

The parts of Arkansas we visited were more rural. Did you know over half the state of Arkansas is untouched? The roads are narrow and windy, with lots of hills. As someone who comes from the flat part of Texas, they made me nervous. It was a bit of culture shock to me because you could go miles and miles without seeing a gas station, a food place, nor person. It also lacked the diversity that I am used to being in Houston. We saw so many confederate flags. As a black family, this made us extremely uncomfortable. We were wise about the places we stopped, and I will admit, we were nervous about stopping. I was warned about Harrison, AK, so we kept on driving through just to be safe. We got some looks, but for the most part the people we did interact with were nice, or at least not mean.

Anyway, I will stop rambling. Here is how we mapped it out -

  1. Houston to Dallas (approx 4 hours) - Stayed overnight in Dallas

  2. Dallas to Hot Springs, AK (approx 4.5 hours) - No overnight in Hot Springs

  3. Hot Springs, AK to Hotel - Club Wyndham Resort in Fairfield Bay (approx 2.15 mins)

Here was our itinerary -

  1. Day 1 - After Work Drive to Dallas

    • Teddy Bear Park - Lakeside Park (Due to COVID, the bears are covered off)

  2. Day 2 - Woke up in Dallas.

    • Visited Sea Life Aquarium

    • Headed onto Hot Springs, AK. Toured the springs & walked historic district.

    • Headed onto hotel. (Note: We tried to avoid traveling at night but it gets dark a little earlier than we expected there. There are some serious hills in AK and the roads are just those 2 laners each lane going the opposite way)

  3. Day 3

  4. Day 4 - My fave day, we chased waterfalls!

  5. Day 5 - Eureka Springs

  6. Day 6 - We started our trek home. We were really happy to head back.

  7. Day 7

    • Went to beach at our resort

    • Drove back to Houston, which took just under 4 hours

Now for the pics!!!

Hot Springs, AR

Hot Springs was my favorite town that we visited. I wish we had more time than the few hours we spent there. We mostly stayed on the main street in the historic downtown area. You can check out the cool shops, visit the national park HQ (was closed due to pandemic but they had a table outside), view the bath houses, and the national park with the hot springs is right there. We visited 1, but did not drink any of the water. They say it’s safe, but I was not interested in chancing it. The water was hot, hence the name, which was so cool. I wish I could have got it.

Natural Bridge of Arkansas

The drive to the bridge was intense (at least it was for this Texan, who is used to flat roads haha). It is curvy and the hills were very steep (shift to low gear steep). There is a small fee when visiting here. The hike to the actual bridge is short, about a .25 mile. As you are walking to the bridge, there is a small museum that you can check out. This is not a stroller friendly trail. If you have a carrier, that may be best for the smaller kids. Blake, 2 years old, was able to hike this one. Once you past the bridge, on the way to see the bridge from the top view, there are stairs. I found this place to be very magical. The trees leading there were perfection!

Buffalo National River

This was a pretty area. I think if we had planned to get in the water, we could have enjoyed it more. We walked into it not quite knowing what to expect. You can drive your car very close along the banks of the river and set up shop. We just walked around, dipped our toes in the water, and of course took lots of pics. There is no entry fee for this.

Indian Rock Cave

This was free and impressive! There are 2 or 3 more of these Indian rock houses within the state. This one in Fairfield is located within the resort property where we stayed and on a golf course. It is a short hike, with stairs involved from the start of the trail to the rock house. It is huge, and you can even see petroglyphs. The hike to it is fairly long, and there are multiple ways you can hike past it back to the parking lot. It is a lovely hike. Everything was closed at the time we hiked, so no restrooms open nor could we tour the small museum shop. This was a great evening stop!

Blanchard Springs

This area was too pretty to capture on photos, these pics don’t do it justice. There is a cavern in this area but we opted out of doing that. The trail to the waterfall is stroller/wheel chair friendly (if you get close to the waterfall, you will not be able to bring a stroller). This was my favorite area and Mirror Lake is right next to this waterfall.

Mirror Lake

Just breathtaking!!! The lake was created in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. You can view it from top and the bottom. We did see people jumping off along the side into the water. We attempted to walk around the stones in the water, however, the rocks were super slippery. Ethan fell. So if you go in, bring some water shoes or just prepare to bust your bum. There were some water snakes spotted in the corner as well, but most of the people in there seemed unbothered. If you prefer to stay dry, there are a few easy trails you can walk along to take in its beauty. I did want to note that we also saw some poison ivy on several of the trails we did. I could not find too much information about the old ruined building in my pictures. If you have any to share, please drop below in the comments. Otherwise it made for a wonderful photo backdrop.

Falling Water Falls

This was another amazing water fall. It was about an hour from the two in the Blanchard Springs Area. We were not prepared as we did not bring any swim wear. You can pull over on the side of the road and park. There is no official entry point. When you get out of the car, you will be at the top of the falls, and there are several shallow areas to swim or wade in the water in. There is no real trail down but there are several ways to get down. It is pretty steep, but my oldest and husband did it. We saw several people jump off the water fall…I wish I was that brave and confident in my swimming abilities. The water was cool and refreshing.

Thorn Crown Chapel

This is another free thing to add to your list! It was exquisitely designed. There is not much to do here besides take pics, make a donation, and sit in the church and bask in it’s beauty. And pray! Blake kept screaming so we could not spend much time inside.

Historic Downtown of Eureka Springs

Historic Downtown Eureka was popping. A little too much for my taste as this visit was in the midst of a pandemic so we did not spend much time here. There are several shops and eateries. Throughout the historic area you will find several of the springs. Many of them are famous for their healing properties. There was a magnetic spring that supposedly magnetizes any metal object that you drop in. I could not find anything past my earring or wedding ring and was not going to take that chance dipping it in. Within this area is the Passion area. My husband remembered that he had went there when he was in high school on a church trip. We said the production was amazing. There is also a Holy Land area. We would have explored it more had we not been dealing with COVID.

Blue Heritage Spring

I wish we could have spent more time here. It ended up raining, so we had to cut it short. It was a really magical storybook-esque area. There is a fee for this area that I felt was a bit steep.

TR Pugh Memorial Park

My mom was adamant about going here and by am I glad she was. It was yet another beautiful spot in Arkansas. This one is located in North Little Rock. This mill was in the opening scene of Gone With the Wind and one of the last remaining structures. There is no cost to visit and I loved the area it was located in. A great spot for a cup of coffee or to take pics!

Mid-American Science Museum

This stop was for my oldest, Ethan. He LOVES dinosaurs and it was a really cool museum. The building itself was spectacular. We mostly went for the dino trek which is out back. There are hills and lots of beautiful trees along the trail. We loved seeing the lifesize dinosaurs and overall the museum was just really fun and cool. It is very interactive so the kiddos enjoyed it.

Our Lodging - Fairfield Bay, AR & Flint, TX

We packed in a lot in the 7 days. The kids were real troopers. The one place we wanted to go to but could not manage to swing is Whitaker Point. If we ever go back, I will explore more near Fayetteville area. I am hoping we can do Arches National Park in Utah, I have an epic adventure planned for that too.

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If you made it this far in the blog, thank you! It is so much work putting together these posts, so I appreciate you taking the time to review.

We used Expedia to book both of our lodging and got super great rates.

Thank you for reading, XoXo. What area looked the coolest? Drop a comment below.