A Story About Life and Living It

After our hike in Louisiana we headed out to Arkansas, a state I remember fondly from several experiences as a child and teenager. This time around proved to be no less impressive. Our first stop was Crater of Diamonds State Park. The park is built on what used to be the only active diamond mine in the US. Now, visitors can go dig for diamonds and others gems and can keep whatever they find. On display were some huge diamonds that lucky diggers had found and donated back to the state park (Crazy, huh?).



We may not have found any diamonds, but it was plenty of fun and we did manage to find Waldo on our way there:

Our next stop after that park was Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, AR. We went to the visitor's center for the park and were fascinated by that particular piece of American history. The water at the park is heated geothermally and comes out of the ground at 143 degrees F. People have been visiting to take hot baths since the mid 1830's, and use exploded in the 1920's. The visitor's center is a former bathhouse that was open from the 1910's until 1962. 

This is the visitor"s center

Just chillin'

These bathtubs are large enough to live in

This is where the spring flows under the building

Workout room

I know these look like torture devices, but supposedly it feels great

The building itself was beautiful as well:

You can't really tell, but this statue was a little weird

The men's baths were much nicer and larger than the women's

Yes. Mermaids.

The men's (un)-dressing room

This room had been a sort of lounge or something

Outside view

The promenade

For dinner that evening we went to Bill Clinton's favorite BBQ restaurant, and old-timey, no-credit-cards-accepted place called McClard's. Clinton famously had an order of ribs rushed to Air Force One in Little Rock during one of his visits there. Whether you support Clinton or not the ribs were fantastic. Southeastern BBQ is very different than Texas BBQ, but very good as well.

We spent the night at the national park campground, which was easy enough except the next day was Sunday and they had no showers. Lani opted for a bath in the spring-fed river:


No word yet on whether it cured all of her maladies. We'll keep you posted.

After church we drove up to Mount Magazine State Park northwest of Little Rock. That leg of the drive was one of the prettiest parts of the trip. The hike up Mount Magazine took all of 10 minutes to arrive at 2,753 feet above sea level. A kind stranger snapped a photo for us:


Most of the tall, prominent, or notable peaks in America are marked with United States Geological Survey (USGS) markers, so this will be a common theme on this blog (No, there wasn't one in Louisiana. We looked all over). This one was neat because it was inlaid into a map of Arkansas at the correct location of the highpoint:


There are some beautiful cabins and a brand new, beautiful lodge on top of the mountain with an outstanding view. People hang glide from the edge frequently.


A couple in their late 50's or early 60's who told us they came up to the lodge for their first anniversary were kind enough to take a photo for us:


The pictures don't really capture how beautiful this spot is or how nice the lodge and other accommodations looked. This is on our list of places to which we should return one day for a getaway. With our second highpoint on record we headed toward Missouri:

This sign only says 5 miles, but the one before it said 60. It was quite the road with most of its turns at 25 mph.