Day 15 From Louisiana to Arkansas

It’s the start of my third week. When I awoke and took the dogs for a walk, the ground throughout the Lake Bruin State Park campground was a muddy mush following heavy rains in the days before I arrived. And the gnats were brutal. It was so bad I immediately drove off and we ate breakfast after we were an hour from the park. I headed to Shreveport as I wanted to hike through the Walter B. Jacobs Memorial Nature Park to test how the dogs would react upon seeing many different types of wildlife along the dog-friendly trails. Alas, the park was shut down for some sort of repairs. The many sites I viewed online gave no indication it was closed!

I left Louisiana and headed up north along I-49 to Texarkana in Arkansas, and then northeast on I-30 to Hot Springs, and was reminded by multiple signs that I was now in the “Boyhood Home of President Bill Clinton.” I arrived in the Gulpha Gorge Campground within the Hot Springs National Park. This small camping area very nice, with electrical connections and showers and quite a few trails.

We took a three mile hike up the mountain to the Hot Springs Tower. A very nice couple from Ohio watched my dogs as I took the elevator up to the observation area at the top of the tower. I took quite a few magnificent pictures of the area, including the National Park mountains, and the Hot Springs town. Another couple at the top pointed out a V-shaped building in the town which was the original Hot Springs hotel. I stopped in the museum before leaving the tower and saw many displays describing the history of the area. The Red Sox used to stay near here and visit the springs during spring training (pun not intended) in the years when Babe Ruth was on the team. And there was a description of the Springs history before and after segregation – very interesting area.

We then hiked back and settled in for the night. The only negative was that the gnats in Louisiana were replaced by ticks in Arkansas.