Hot Springs, Arkansas! Days 1 & 2

Over Memorial Day weekend my boyfriend and I traveled up north to Hot Springs, Arkansas! We decided to go there for a couple reasons… 1) We have never been before and we love to add new pins to our map! 2) Hot Springs is a national park and 3) We may never have a reason to go to Arkansas ever again… so why not!? 

Day 1

From where we live it is a ~7 hour drive and there are two main ways to get there. 

We chose the slightly longer path so that we could stop at at the Duck Dynasty Duck Commander on the way. Ok so let me make this clear - the only thing I know about the Duck Dynasty people is that they have long beards and live in northern Louisiana. My boyfriend's best friend on the other hand is a HUGE fan so we decided to go that way so we could take some pictures and send them his way!

 

Before we left for our trip we were telling a friend that we were stopping at the Duck Dynasty place and she mentioned that she had a long fake beard that we could use. So of course we took it with us and had to take pictures with the beard in front of their store! 

Ryan seemed to master the beard…. 

I on the other hand have clearly never worn a fake beard before… Notice how the mouth hole is on my nose?! The funny part is I had ZERO clue about it until I was going through my pictures later. I had a laughing fit for at least 20 minutes when I discovered my beard error!!! 

We had started the road trip right after work on Friday and didn't get to Hot Springs until around midnight. The Inn keep had left us our keys and we went straight to bed! 

Side Note: We stayed at the Country Inn Lake Resort which was located on Lake Hamilton. Everything about the Inn was fine with the exception of one thing…. the walls were paper thin! I could hear literally every word coming the people in the rooms next door. Luckily my boyfriend has ear plugs from work so with those we were able to zone out our neighbors and sleep. Sooo if you are a heavy sleeper by all means I would recommend this place because Lake Hamilton is beautiful… but if you, like me, are a light sleeper… then maybe stay somewhere else. 

View from our room!

Day 2

Saturday morning we woke up and drove into downtown Hot Springs. The forecast was questionable so we decided to hike in the morning in case the afternoon turned out rainy. We hiked up Hot Springs Mountain (nothing too intense) in the Ouachita Mountains and then went up the Mountain Tower at the top! 

 

When we were done hiking the next thing on our list was to see the actual hot springs! We found one at the base of the mountain and enjoyed watching it steam and dip our fingers into it! For the record - it is really hot! We read somewhere the water is 143 degrees! Soo if you have little people with you… make sure you keep an eye on them because that is some seriously hot water!! 

 

In this picture you can even see the steam!

From here the day took an interesting turn… and by that I mean public nudity. Yup. Somehow I found myself naked in front of strangers. 

So let me rewind here. Hot Springs is known as Spa city. Being Spa city… it made sense to go to the Spa!? Right? Wouldn't that be the logical thing to do? Well sort of... After doing some research, the place to go seemed to be the Buckstaff Bathhouse. They have been in operation since 1912 and they still perform the traditional bath house services. This is where it gets interesting… 

My boyfriend didn't seem interested in doing this at all and I was the one pushing him to do it! I have never had any sort of spa experience (never less a bath house one) so in my head it seemed like a great idea! Hahaha welllll ….

Here is what happens if you get the traditional Whirlpool Buckstaff Bath House experience… 

1) If you are traveling with someone of the opposite sex they separate you. Men go on the first floor and women go on the second floor. 

2) You go in a locker room where they give you a key so you can lock up your stuff. You are then instructed to get naked. Completely naked. 

3) When you are all naked and uncomfortable you are supposed to let the attendant know. She then comes and in and wraps you in a sheet (yes a nice white sheet). 

4) You then wait to be called into the toucher chamber bath house. 

5) A new attendant then takes you a large tub. You again get naked in front of a new lady and get in the tub. She will then leave you alone for 15-20 minutes. 

6) This is your only time alone throughout the experience so enjoy it! You are in the natural mineral water and it has a jet so it's like your own personal jacuzzi. At this point I was totally mortified so I wasn't really enjoying the experience… mostly just waiting to see what the heck was coming next. **insert awkward uncomfortable laugh here** I am not one of those comfortable-in-front-of-stangers type of people so I was totally shocked and embarrassed by the whole thing. 

7) When your time is up the attendant comes back. NOW SHE WILL BATHE YOU. With a loofa. Yup. She washes your legs, and back. Definitely wasn't expecting that!! She then wraps you back in the white sheet (note: you are soaked and now wrapped in a white sheet … basically that does nothing to conceal you). 

8) You are then led to have a Hot Pack. You lay down on a bed and your attendant wraps you in warm hot towels. This part I actually enjoyed (probably because it was the most I felt covered during the whole experience). 

9) The next two things that happen are a Silz Bath and a Vapor Cabinet. 

Long story short - A Siltz bath is a tub for just your butt (see the tub thing on the left in the above image). You basically sit there, naked, and wonder why the heck you signed up for it in the first place. 

The vapor cabinet is like a personal steam room (see the thing on the right in that above image). I would of enjoyed this part if it hadn't been so awkward. See how there is a door in the front and the two tops come down around your head? So imagine sitting in this little cabin (with a line of people waiting to use it) and just your head is sticking out. Now imagine the attendant comes to let you out and opens just the front part and then walks away for a second. You are butt naked, exposed, and awkwardly trapped in the head part. LOL Holy Mortification. You would think at this point I would of been used to it? Nope. #OMGPublicNudity 

10) The last thing you participate in is the Needle Shower. This is basically a normal shower where the water comes from the side. 

11) The attendant then gives you instructions on how to get back to locker room. I booked it because I was so ready to get out of there. **Insert another awkward laugh here** 

So here is the funny part - my boyfriend loved it! They give the men a towel they could use to wrap around themselves between stations and since there were nearly less men then women, he didn't really have to interact with anyone. 

If you are bath house savvy and can relax in that environment - by all means go... You will love it. I think I would of liked it more had I known what was coming. Had I had this sort of post to read… I would at least of had a visual to know what to expect!! Will I do this again? Most definitely not. Would I recommend it? Sure why not. It's all part of the experience! 

The rest of the day (besides recovering from my embarrassment) we explored the town and then explored more of Hot Springs. We found a little beach on Lake Ouachita where we hung out until it started to get late! 

So that concludes Day 1 and 2 of our vacation! Come back tomorrow for Day 3 and 4 (not nearly as mortifying but definitely a ton of fun)!