We decided to do something a little different for the Thanksgiving holiday this year: a mountain bike trip to Hot Springs!
Michael had the entire week off thanks to his school schedule, but for me this would be a work trip for the first part of the week. That meant cell phone coverage was a necessity and it limited our camping options just a bit. Meaning, we had to pay for camping. Luckily Taco Negro is at home way out deep in the woods or on a concrete pad in a campground.
Our best bet looked like Gulpha Gorge Campground. It’s the only campground in Hot Springs National Park and by reviews had decent cell coverage. By the time I made our reservations, though, pickings were a bit slim and there were no sites open for the entire week. I ended up cobbling together a string of different sites, each for 1-2 nights. It’s not a problem for us to pack up and move, and we were going to do that anyway to drive to the mountain bike trailheads.
I’d chosen this area of Arkansas specifically for the mountain biking. Northwest Arkansas is home to some spectacular trails, but it’s far from the only place to ride in the state. Case in point: the Diamond Lakes Region is home to over 250 miles of mountain bike trails. Many of these are IMBA “Epic Rides” and we’d never ridden any of them.
The Northwoods Trails are closest to Hot Springs and that’s where we chose to ride for the week. We didn’t come close to covering all the 30+ miles of trails there and that was not for lack of trying.
We arrived on a Sunday to a pleasant and well-maintained campground. None of the sites we used were remotely level and one of the bathrooms was closed the entire week. Also no showers. That’s the whole list of complaints!
It rained on and off all day Monday so I worked and Michael got in a trail run – there are two trails that begin from the campground but they are hiking only. I enjoy working from the camper. I can stand, set up the table or just tuck myself in on the bench, which Bailey seems to prefer.
If you look closely, you might notice that large bottle of Sriracha there on the counter. On our way down to Hot Springs, we stopped in the town of Russellville and stumbled across Linh Vietnamese Cuisine. Not only was the food delicious, Michael spied several cases of those Sriracha bottles. Michael is in love with this stuff and we have not been able to find it anywhere in Fayetteville for months. He’s been using the Tabasco version but swears it’s not as good. Honestly, I’m surprised he only got one bottle!
Tuesday looked like a good day to ride but that pesky work got in the way for me. Michael dropped me off at Kollective Coffee, right one the end of Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs and a short drive from the Waterworks Trailhead.
Kollective Coffee is a fun place to get a few hours of work in. Good wifi, lots of outlets. Great coffee and really good food, too! Their vegetarian and even vegan options were quite tasty. Whoever set the playlist that afternoon has my gratitude because the music was fantastic. It was fun to listen to employees singing along.
When Michael picked me up a few hours later he said I was going to love the riding at Waterworks. Smooth, flowy singletrack that wasn’t too steep and just made you want to ride for ever.
I got my first chance on Thanksgiving day. (In case you’re wondering, we went to Texas Roadhouse for “Thanksgiving” steak dinner on Wednesday night.) And how right Michael was: the trails at Waterworks – right on the shore of Bethel Lake, and the site of a small Water Treatment Facility that pulls & purifies water from the 3 nearby lakes for Hot Springs – were amazing. We spent the afternoon riding through the trees, popping out at a different lake. It was a blast! Favorite trail: Cat’s Meow, a flowy, moderate downhill loaded with berms and tabletops.
The weather was going to get cool for the rest of the week so we decided to ride on Friday too, this time opting for the Cedar Glades Trailhead a few miles away. I’m still in some disbelief that the parking lot at Cedar Glades was practically empty. We saw just two other riders.
Best of all (for Michael), Cedar Glades is home to a disc golf course! He went and played a round while I had lunch. He came back saying how much fun that course was, had a quick bite and off we went!
We started off on a fun loop called Waffles & Coffee, before heading south to pick up Trash Zamboni (which I kept calling Trash Zombie, proving that I have, in fact, turned in to my mother) before looping around Smoke Alarm and heading back.
And that was just one area of the Diamond Lakes Region! I’m really excited to try more trails here.
After a lazy start to Saturday, we headed towards town but our first stop was the Caribbean Cafe. We’d driven by it a couple times and were honestly a little dubious about authentic Caribbean food in the middle of Arkansas. But this place is owned by a nice couple from Nassau, the Bahamas, and the food was amazing.
It’s been too long since I’ve had real jerk chicken! My only complaint was that we waited to long to try it. I’d happily eat here several times a week!
Bathhouse Row of Hot Springs is a fun place to walk around. Shopping is similar to what you’ll find in any mountain town: t-shirt shops, art galleries, sweet shops, etc. There are a lot of majestic old buildings that date back to Hot Springs’ heyday, back in the early 1900s.
These days all the hot springs are contained in private bath houses or hotels. There are some that are open to the public, but we saw lines of people at those and opted out of a soak this time around.
The building above is actually the visitor’s center for Hot Springs National Park.
Our last stop at Bathhouse Row was the Mountain Valley Spring Water Visitor Center. It might sound odd that we drove all this way for water, but if you think that’s weird then you’ve never tasted this water.
Even though the town is called Hot Springs, this area is also famous for its cold springs. And while the hot springs are all behind a paywall, so to speak, there are multiple cold springs throughout the town and those are all free. We brought a few containers from home and happily came back with about 10 gallons of lovely spring water.
The Visitor’s Center sells water in just about every size container you can think of, as well as flavored and plain sparkling water. And that sparkling water is what we came for.
Buy one, get one for half off was a pretty good deal and we were happy to stock up!
It was good to be back in the truck, if only for a week, and I’m happy to report that it took almost no time at all to get back into the overlanding lifestyle. Can’t wait for the next trip!