#Gates50States

Our regular readers will recall us saying the hardest part about this Gates50States adventure saying, “No,” to so many amazing places to visit and fun things to do in every state we’ve come across. Another challenge we’ve struggled with internally is the urge to do so many things in a state when we know our time (and often times the kids’ attention… and therefore our sanity) is limited. So we’ve considered not doing as much as we possibly can, knowing that while the perception of expectations is very strong, we don’t owe anything to anyone. Arriving home from a jam-packed trip feeling exhausted and in need of a real vacation is no way to live, we’ve learned. So maybe we pick just a couple of unique things in a state and enjoy them, and we feel good about that.

And so this is how we approached Arkansas, particularly after nearly 2,000 miles of driving to and through Kansas and Oklahoma. Rather than visiting every place that we really wanted to (we’re looking at you, Ozarks!) but knowing we only had so much time, we decided to park ourselves in Hot Springs Village. This gave us a beautiful VRBO with a wonderful view of a sunrise sky, and a not too far drive to Hot Springs National Park and some fun things we wanted to take in.

Hot Springs Village is massive, and when you drive through the guarded gates and consider the area on the map, you really have to be impressed by the vision of those who created HSV. There’s a gas station within the gates, the pickle ball ($13 pp/day) and tennis courts (Coronado Tennis Center, 3 hard/10 clay) are nice. The mini golf ($3 pp/day) isn’t the most well-maintained, but it was still a fun way for the kids to spend a morning. We didn’t visit any of the several golf courses on the property. You ought to know the advertised walking/hiking trails aren’t as accessible as you might think, and they tend to follow the roads.

We suggest looking for a lakefront property for the beauty of the scenery, and look for homes as close as possible to either the east or west gates on DeSoto. If you rent in the middle, you’re going to have a long drive getting in and out of the community to/from anywhere you’re headed (for instance, 20 to 30 minutes to HSNP).

We suggest you adjust your expectations when you visit Hot Springs National Park. If you’re thinking about Yellowstone’s thermals, or Glacier’s mountain lakes, or Kentucky’s caves, or Death Valley’s landscape, we have bad news for you. HSNP isn’t about scenery and majestic viewpoints (though there are some pleasant hiking trails), but about protecting a very unique water source, and the period of lifestyle history that… sprung up (🙄) around the hot springs in the late-1800s into the early 1900s.

The hot springs were medicinal, attracting the ill of the era. Then it became a playground of the wealthy as the luxury of the bath houses increased… and gambling emerged. The vast network of gangster activity and the unrelated rise of MLB spring training only added to the perfect storm of circumstances converted to make Hot Springs the Las Vegas of the 1920s.

When you arrive in Hot Springs, the first thing you’ll notice is the abandoned hotels. What at first appears to be an eyesore will come into focus and make much more sense when you take in the history at both the Fordyce Bath House and The Gangster Museum of America. The video at Fordyce isn’t of the best quality, but the rest of the interpretive displays are well-presented.

The next thing you’ll notice is Bathhouse Row. Some are operated by the National Park System, a couple still operate as bathhouses, one has been converted to a brewery! Take some time to appreciate the architecture and appearance, and then peruse them one by one.

The story telling at the Gangster Museum was first class. Very different in style and presentation from The Mob Museum in Las Vegas, they run 90-minute guided tours at carefully curated stations, and while your experience may vary depending on your guide, we had an excellent guide who took great pride in his style of communication. A truly wonderful stop.

About the hiking, the ranger at Fordyce gave us some faulty information about the hikes. We’re not sure he actually ever walked the trails. So we suggest planning ahead and gathering information from All Trails about the type of distance and elevation gain you’d like.

The only real, true bath house experience is at the Buckstaff. I (Jenn) never saw the lines people were talking about and we were there supposedly during a busy time. We got scared off by the reports of walk-in only lines being >1+hrs and our kids didn’t want to walk around naked for the experience.

Quapaw has public bath pools, and that’s where I went with my mom. We had spa services there (massage and facials) but did not find the idea of sitting in what amounts to a large hot tub very appealing. They admit 10am spa appts first at 9:30am and then the people queued up for the bath experience.

Rolando’s and Steinhaus Keller were supposedly good restaurants recommended to us- I wouldn’t go back to either.

The thought of a progressive meal had us eating a main midday meal at Rolando’s and following it up with dessert and drinks at Steinhaus Keller with strolling and shopping in between. What follows is more of a bullet point review that we’ve given in the past, but it works for this…

Rolando’s…Complementary chips (not GF, but they have some GF tostada) and black bean/corn salsa- guac and queso were excellent! …. Was told there’s a good wine list- if so, our server had no idea; cheap, not good offerings… Meals were nothing special- told our server I was GF when she brought chips, but she didn’t say anything when I ordered the Adkins Diet plate of several different meats with queso and guac. The chicken looked like it was dredged in flour before it was pan fried! Distinctly not GF or Adkins friendly (if you care)… The queso was an oily blob in the middle of the plate and the pork was flavorless. The only good items were guac (but it only came with 1/2 a tostada chip) and 3 shrimp… Tamales were decent and best meal was probably the Tilapia Tacos.

Steinhaus Keller… We went here based on a recommendation from a local and the drink menu online looked fabulous. Reality was a bit different. I had also read that the service could be quite slow, but I thought we’d avoid that by arriving around 4pm… Upon being seated, we discovered the drink menu was completely different than the menu online. Apparently, it hadn’t been updated since the Fall. The Spring drink menu was very different and not nearly as appealing. The waiter offered to make me a similar old fashioned to what had been on the Fall menu, which was a kind offer. Unfortunately, the drink was pretty watered down and had too many additional ice cubes for it’s $21 price tag. In reality, the drink was actually $25 due to the 33% tax!!!!! on spirits. Absolute insanity! If I had known that, no way would I have ordered anything aside from wine or beer (only a 12.5% tax) or just water…. My dad ordered a beer and asked for coffee to come with dessert, implying we would enjoy our drinks before dessert. Well, they delivered dessert first before we even had drinks, so he ended up having beer and hot coffee at the same time. It was at least 20 minutes before our drinks were delivered from the time we ordered and there were only 3 other tables in the restaurant. My daughter also had a long hair pulled from her Shirley Temple- 🤮… The only saving grace was the quality of the desserts. They were small for the price, however each one tasted fantastic! We can all highly recommend the Apple Strudel, Deutsch Cheesecake and Black Forest cake.

Overall, I wouldn’t go back to either restaurant, but I probably wouldn’t choose to visit Hot Springs again either. It was neat to experience once. Our daughter says, “I mean, you’re not wrong.”

About the strolling/shopping between meal courses, this is something very worthwhile in Hot Springs. Joanna A. Boutique – really nice boutique clothing store with small brands from CA… Friendly owner/ decent pricing. Our daughter really liked her time there.

We had many hours to reflect on our time in Arkansas, and the kids had fond memories of hiking – both the fun urban hiking along the shops and the Grand Promenade, but also through the woods to some pretty lookouts.

We also visited Crystal Ridge Distillery, makers and purveyors of good, quality moonshine. Make sure to check the website for tour times and book a tasting after the tour. They weren’t stingy on the tastings. 🙂 Our visit coincided with massive tornados spawning from way south of Little Rock to St. Louis (and up into Ohio, we came to learn from Auntie Haley!). Warnings blaring from everyone’s phone simultaneously with sirens in the background made for an interesting afternoon.

It’s always fun to learn the different distilling and production techniques for various spirits. The kids (and even the dog) were welcome on the tour (Micah was very knowledgeable) however kids need to stay 5 ft from the bar during tasting by adults. Apple Pie was my favorite moonshine and I was surprised by the authenticity of their vodka sodas (try the Strawberry Mojito and Black Cherry).

Thankfully, the harsh weather spared us. Our time in central Arkansas had come to a close. It was our most relaxing stops on this leg of the Gates50States. We filled in a big chunk of our map over this spring break 2023. Stay tuned for our next installment, and thank you for reading about this one.