My wife and I made a quick trip to Hot Springs National Park this past weekend. The weather was absolutely beautiful the whole time and was perfect for walking and hiking in the area. The first morning we headed out and walked to the Grand Promenade and found where the Oertel trail starts and hiked this trail to the Gulpha Gorge Campground. This was a moderate hike, but very scenic and the campground was very nice and clean. We talked to the groundskeeper and he said the campground had not been as busy lately, so getting a spot was pretty easy as long as you get there by early Friday morning. From the campground we hiked back up the mountain and went to the lookout tower at its peak. We didn’t go to the top of the tower but I’m sure the view was impressive as you could see for miles from the look out located on the trail. We then hiked back to town and hit the Ohio Club for lunch. This was a favorite gambling/ speak easy for the gangsters such as Al Capone and countless other outlaws I’m sure. The town also use to have spring training for the major leagues and Babe Ruth spent quite a lot of time there during this time. Later that night we hit a very nice Italian restaurant named Luna Bella (Located near Lake Hamilton) and had a great meal. On Sunday we woke up and walked to Bath house Row where we had reservations to Quapaw Bath House for a soak in the hot spring pools located inside. The hot springs are said to have healing powers and the town was a Mecca for people looking to be healed. There is also a old abandoned Army Hospital that was built to treat military personnel which used the hot springs for treatments along with a series of hiking trails for physical exercise. On Sunday night we strolled through the Christmas Decorations and ended up at a restaurant called “Rolandos ” The restaurants owner “Ralando” is from Equador and his wife is from Southern Arkansas. The food has a Mexican back ground but is influenced from both of their back grounds. We spent a lot of time chatting with the wait staff and asked lots of questions about the food and they were very open about how it is prepped and what the ingredients were. We filled in the slack time with shopping at the tons of stores located in the area around Bathhouse Row and just taking in the views walking to and from the hotel. Overall this was a great trip and I highly recommend going. It was very family friendly and clean and appears to be very safe.
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