Arkansas dream vacation - suggestions?

[NorthernVike 2,087]

Are you bringing your own boat?  If not, look into which resorts have the nicest boats.  Some resorts have shitass boats.  Don't worry about the cost.

[MTSkiBum 1,620]

41 minutes ago, NorthernVike said:

Are you bringing your own boat?  If not, look into which resorts have the nicest boats.  Some resorts have shitass boats.  Don't worry about the cost.

I am not going to bring my own boat. I am looking for my next boat, however even if i find it before then I will just rent.

 

I will make sure to read the reviews of the marina before renting a boat, that is a good point. Although it often boils down to luck on whether you rent a good boat or a bad boat.

 

Last year in myrtle beach I rented a boat for a week and the bilge pump did not work, the boat also had a very slight leak into the bilge. By the end of the day you could not get the boat on plane because there was too much weight in the bilge. 

I called the owner of the marina to send out a mobile mechanic after the first day of fishing and they could not fix the problem. The problem was not the pump but was related to wiring which requires more time/effort to fix. Since they did not have a replacement boat they had me use the boat without a bilge pump. No way would i have done that if it was my boat, I would not risk losing a boat over a few days of fishing.

Also, talk about liability, to let people use a rented boat without a bilge pump. We fished near shore so that if the boat swamped we would be alright, but not everyone would have found the problem or known how big of problem a broken bilge pump is when it comes to bay/nearshore fishing.

[Bier Meister 1,715]

Enjoy the trip.  Sounds like there are a lot of fun activities to do in the area.

[Fumbleweed 547]

4 hours ago, MTSkiBum said:

 

Appreciate all of this.

 

Our first major decision is to choose which lake we are staying on. I hope to book a cabin/resort for our stay and we will drive from that resort to our daily activities in Hot Springs, Diamond Crater, etc.

There are 3 obvious choices around Hot Springs.

 

There is Lake Hamilton which is located in the town of hot springs, this one would be closest to restaurants and would allow us to explore the town easier.

There is Lake Ouachita, which is in the national forest and around 30 minutes west of Hot Springs. Part of this vacation is to get into nature and this lake would allow us to do that the easiest.

There is also Degray Lake which is about 30 minutes south of Hotsprings. It is not in a national forest, which is kind of a bummer, however there seem to be many more resorts on its shore than on Lake Ouachita.

 

Have you stayed on any of these 3 lakes and/or do you have a recommendation?

 

Have. Hamilton has great views, properties, and location advantages. Ouachita is a really pretty lake and has great hiking opportunities. Much more secluded and away from the things of man than Hamilton. DeGray is just your standard East Texas sort of lake. Not picturesque or anything special, but maybe has some activities. 

[MTSkiBum 1,620]

14 minutes ago, Fumbleweed said:

Have. Hamilton has great views, properties, and location advantages. Ouachita is a really pretty lake and has great hiking opportunities. Much more secluded and away from the things of man than Hamilton. DeGray is just your standard East Texas sort of lake. Not picturesque or anything special, but maybe has some activities. 

 

Excellent information, I will eliminate Degray from contention.

 

Which of those 2 lakes do you prefer?  If you were to go back would you rather be near hot springs or secluded in the national forest?

 

[Fumbleweed 547]

3 minutes ago, MTSkiBum said:

 

Excellent information, I will eliminate Degray from contention.

 

Which of those 2 lakes do you prefer?  If you were to go back would you rather be near hot springs or secluded in the national forest?

 

Since I have been to Hot Springs multiple times, I would prefer the solitude of Lake Ouachita. But, Hamilton is much more convenient if you need to get things in town. 

[MTSkiBum 1,620]

5 hours ago, Fumbleweed said:

Since I have been to Hot Springs multiple times, I would prefer the solitude of Lake Ouachita. But, Hamilton is much more convenient if you need to get things in town. 

 

We may stay an hour away from Hot Springs at the below location. My wife informed me that hiking to waterfalls is what she wants to do most of all. All of the waterfalls are west of town. We will probably only drive over to hotsprings for a single day if we are that far away from it.

https://atlivingwatercabins.com/the-family-lodge/

The below has river access, and is cheaper but does not look as authentic.

http://peapatchranch.com/the-cottage/

 

I think my kids will want campfires, I will continue searching for cabins that will let us have a fire.

 

[MTSkiBum 1,620]

@Fumbleweed

I am finding quite a few cabins which i think will work better, however they are getting increasingly far from hotsprings and are more in the national forest. I think if we stay over here we will probably still spend 1 day in hotsprings, however instead of looking for diamonds we may go to the local crystal mines.

Do you have kids, have they ever done the crystal mining around Mt Ida?

 

Cabins on the river.

https://www.riverviewcabins-canoes.com/Sites/

[Fumbleweed 547]

I have been to Mt. Ida, but not done crystal mining. I do have kids, but they're grown now. My daughters used to love to go to all the rock shops in that area. There's a huge rock shop in Jessieville that's famous and I bought a chess set there a few years back. They also have an amazing burger place there. 

There's not much around Mt. Ida, but it's national forest, so it's nice if you like that sort of scenery. You just don't want to get south of Hot Springs much as at that point, Arkansas becomes North Louisiana/East Texas. I went to high school in North Louisiana, so that's home for me, but I don't think of dense pine trees as a vacation spot and that's what everything along 1-30 in Arkansas basically is. 

[wiffleball 4,790]

Well, there's a dude in Little Rock who's lost most of his buddies and is always down to party.

 

 

His wife's a buzzkill though.

[WhiteWonder 2,766]

On 2/7/2022 at 10:28 PM, MTSkiBum said:

 

I am unsure what COL means, but I just checked and the average high is 84. That is doable for us, anything less than 95 is generally a go for us for outdoor activities and under 90 is great for summer.

 

We hopefully will rent a boat one day, so a warmer day may not be bad.

i believe he meant cost of living.... but there are many more reasons COL is low in Arkansas than the heat in june 

[MTSkiBum 1,620]

@Fumbleweed

 

My brother in law is now meeting us with his family, so now I am looking for a cabin that sleeps at least 12 or 2 cabins side by side.

 

I found a cabin near fort lake smith, but it seems close to the OK border, is that part of the ozarks pretty?

 

https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/lake-fort-smith-state-park

[Fumbleweed 547]

On 2/20/2022 at 9:09 AM, MTSkiBum said:

@Fumbleweed

 

My brother in law is now meeting us with his family, so now I am looking for a cabin that sleeps at least 12 or 2 cabins side by side.

 

I found a cabin near fort lake smith, but it seems close to the OK border, is that part of the ozarks pretty?

 

https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/lake-fort-smith-state-park

Not nearly as pretty as Hot Springs area, no. 

[cmh6476 1,031]

On 2/20/2022 at 9:09 AM, MTSkiBum said:

@Fumbleweed

 

My brother in law is now meeting us with his family, so now I am looking for a cabin that sleeps at least 12 or 2 cabins side by side.

 

I found a cabin near fort lake smith, but it seems close to the OK border, is that part of the ozarks pretty?

 

https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/lake-fort-smith-state-park

any takeaways?  We're also going during the summer scorching months this year, for our anniversary but same kind of concept as you, I think.  We got a map of the US when we started dating that we put pictures of our travels together and hope to someday have all the states covered.

We're staying at the Arlington Resort in Hot Springs, and have dinner reservations on our anniversary at 501 Prime but most of the week is open to plan activities and whatnot.