Hot Springs, Arkansas! Days 3 & 4
This post is a part 2 to my Hot Springs, Arkansas vacation over Memorial Day weekend so if you missed yesterdays post you can catch up here…
We woke up early on Sunday and were super excited because we had a river kayak trip planned! We had made reservations with Arrowhead Canoes, Kayaks and Tubing since Memorial Day weekend was expected to be busy. We drove 40 min to Glenwood, parked our car and called the shuttle to come pick us up. They were there within 10 minutes and drove us up to the Arrowhead camp ground where we paid and picked up our kayak! We chose to get a tandem kayak so that we could stay together!! So much fun! The trip was expected to take 4-5 hours so we had a backpack with snacks and lunch which we tied on the back of the kayak…
Day 3
And then we were off! The river was gorgeous! The water was unbelievably clear and in some of the deeper areas it was the most beautiful shade of blue! My boyfriend and I had such a blast! There were some class 1 rapids which were just enough to give the ride some thrill but nothing too crazy where we had to worry about flipping! I didn't take a ton of pictures because the camera was safely packed in a ziplock bag deep in the backpack... but here are some of the ones I did remember to take!
We had so much fun! The water moved most of the time so it was much more of a float then a hard core kayaking trip. We stopped a couple times to swim and a couple times to eat! Loved every minute of it! It took us about 4.5 hours to get back to Glenwood! When we finally reached our destination, there was someone waiting to flag us down and help us get our kayak out of the river. Since we had parked at the Glenwood location, all we had to do was get in the car and go! Super easy!
At this point we still had most of our day left and one of the things on our list was to see the Garvan Woodland Gardens. It rained the whole car ride there but we were not going to let that stop us!
After about 20 minutes in the garden, the rain let up and we were able to really enjoy it!! It was so beautiful! There were tons of flower and tree species, some great trails and just a lot to look it! I highly recommend it if you are in the area!!
We even stumbled on the cutest little fairy garden!
The gardens are also famously known for the beautiful Anthony Chapel. Unfortunately for us it was wedding season and we were not able to go in since a wedding ceremony was being set up. A wedding guest saw that we were super disappointed and offered to take some pictures inside for us! We were so grateful!! Some people are just so nice!
We were able to sneak back later after the wedding was over and get some pictures in front of the chapel (but that this point it was locked up so we still couldn't get in).
I love this picture because the reflection on the glass makes it look like the beams in the chapel are branches and have leaves. Magical.
We were pretty pooped after this super long and exciting day and went to bed at a decent hour after a fantastic steak dinner!
Day 4
Since we had a long drive ahead of us we got up early on Monday and hit the road… but we had one last adventure on the way home!
We stopped at Crater of Diamonds State Park to mine for diamonds!
Since it had rained the previous day, the crater was in perfect condition for looking for diamonds! We were told there was no need to get fancy with shovels and sieves so we just wandered around looking for something shiny!
We stayed for about an hour and had some fun looking around. We didn't find any diamonds (apparently they find about 2 a day at the crater) but we had fun experiencing what it was like to mine for some!
The rest of the trip was super uneventful since we just drove for 6 more hours to get home!
It was one crazy weekend! Lots of fun! Lots of new experiences (some not so fun - see yesterdays post)! We may never find ourselves in Arkansas again but we are glad to say that we went!
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