Lake Oauchita State Park

With Spring break coming Brayden asked me if we could go camping. He and Hannah were going to be out for spring break with no fun plans. I can't turn down a request like that from my grandchildren, so on short notice I looked around for an available campsite. I found a good site at Lake Ouachita State Park for March 17th through March 20. I reserved site #41 in loop B which is the first cul-de-sac type loop past the Visitor Center. Site #41 is a class AAA site with full hookups. Although close to the road it is separated from the road by long boat trailer parking spots and allowed considerable separation from traffic. The site had a nice view of the lake and a small creek behind.

While setting up camp I saw the first bald eagle of the week. As it turned out this  eagle was the first of several we would see.

Bald Eagle Above Loop B

Nighttime was a colorful time with everyone in our loop sporting different color outdoor lights. It almost looked like the circus came to town.

Just below out trailer was the swim beach. A pretty place near the marina, but with nighttime temperatures approaching the 20's there was no swimming going on.

Monday morning we drove to Hot Springs for a day around town. We stopped for lunch on Central Avenue at Rolando’s Restaurante for a delicious Ecuadorian lunch. 

Next stop after lunch as a short walk down the street to Kilwins for desert. Everyone tried a different ice cream flavor. We also took home some tasty chocolate covered almonds. 

Continuing on down Central Avenue we walked bathhouse row. We stopped at the Fordyce Bath House which now serves as the Hot Springs National Park Visitor Center. Much of the Fordyce Bathhouse is preserved as a museum. We did a self-guided tour of the bathhouse. Hannah found the whole thing to be creepy and thought most of it looked like torture devices.

Fordyce Bath House - Hot Springs National Park Visitor Center

De Soto's Pool

De Soto's Pool

Old Elevator Equipment

Old Mechanical Equipment Room

Entrance to the Grand Promenade

The Maurice Bathhouse

Hale Bathouse

Superior Bathhouse

At the east end of Lake Ouachita State Park is Three Sisters Springs. The spring has been a source of health, healing, and relaxation since its earliest recorded discovery in the late 1800s. Lake Ouachita State Park exists, in part, to protect the history of the springs and provide opportunities for visitors to hear its story. The cold spring water was said to have various healing abilities and its uses ranged from drinking water for locals to a health resort for visitors from all over the country.

During our first night at the park there was a 3:00 AM incident with the tent zipper rendering it incapable of closing. With temperatures hovering around freezing sleeping in the tent was not considered an option so into the camper kids came. My solution was to get a vinyl tarp to cover the opening while we were in Hot Springs. With the new door in place the second night and temperatures below freezing the kids ended up back in the camper anyway. 

Brayden and Hannah Back in the Camper

Lake Ouachita State Park Visitor Center

Tuesday afternoon we arranged for a a boat tour with a state park interpreter. What was to be a historical tour of the lake turned into what our park interpreter Emily called a "National Geographic Tour" due to the wildlife we were encountering. On the hour and a half tour we saw numerous bald eagles and several rafts of hundreds of coots. Although the coots look like ducks on the water they are not ducks. They don't have webbed feet and are more closely related to rails. Emily explained that coots were a source of food for eagles and in the 1990s just after the bald eagle came off the endangered species list they caused a loss of large numbers of eagles. After years of study it was determined that the coots were eating an invasive water grass the had a bacteria growing on its surface. Attempts to kill the water grass with herbicide resulted in concentration of the bacteria on the remaining grass and eagles eating coots continued to incur brain damage. Finally, sterile carp (sterile carp because they are an undesirable evasive species) were introduced into the effected lakes and the water grass was significantly reduced. The eagle population has since recovered.

Lake Ouachita State Park Marina and Breakwater

Raft of Coots Taking Flight

Emily showed us two special rocks, One rock is called the "Zebra Rock" because of the veins of white quarts in the rock. The other special rock is the charcoal colored rock that shouldn't be in the Ouachita Mountains. She explained that the Ouachita Mountains and the Ozark Mountains are older than the Rocky Mountains and eons ago they were taller than the Rocky Mountains. The movement of the earth and erosion of the mountains relocated the rock from the Ozark Plateau to where it now resides in the Ouachita Mountains.

Zebra Rock

Ozark Plateau Traveling Rock

Boat Tour Bald Eagle

Another Boat tour Bald Eagle

Dinner with View of the Marina

We had a great time at the lake with the exception of the return trip on highway 9. Between Paron and Crows we had a blowout on a trailer tire. Sitting in the middle of busy highway 9 was no place to change a tire so I backed the trailer into a nearby dirt driveway. Turns out that I had stopped in the right place for getting some help changing a tire. A man living in the adjacent trailer house brought me a four way lug wrench. Shortly thereafter the man whose driveway I was blocking arrived home and parked on the opposite side of the highway. He then commenced to practically change the tire himself after I got the blown tire off. It just goes to show that there are good people everywhere that just want to help. We were back on the road shortly. Life is good!

The Dirt Driveway at 15310 Highway 9

The Blowout Tire at Home