Texarkana Trip 2026 - Day 2 (Little Rock - Hot Springs National Park - Vicksburg)

This trip was only half planned. We had a general agenda with a handful of stops per day. However, some of those stops were timed stops, so we held loosely to our plans/days and figured out the next day as we were at the hotel the night before. For Day 2, we looked at our stops and realizing how close we were to Hot Springs National Park, we decided that would be our first stop for the day. 

Honestly, I hadn't added Hot Springs to our overall agenda. It was just far enough out of the way when we drove south through Arkansas and again on our way home (back through Arkansas). Matt suggested that we add it to Day 2 since it was just an hour from our hotel. After we figured out our stops for the day, we did some quick research on Hot Springs and added those stops to our day as well.

We enjoyed the Buc-ee's signs along Interstate 30...

As we drove into town, we saw the Hot Springs Mountain Tower. Crazy enough, this tower didn't show up in my searches of the park! We decided this would be our first stop. It was a great decision as the views were beautiful, the staff was amusing, knowledgeable & so friendly and the informational displays were nicely done. 

The Tower parking lot (our red car is the second to last vehicle on left)

Leaving the tower, we stopped in the gift shop and took a few fun pictures.

We finished driving Hot Springs Mountain (Loop) Drive and continued to West Mountain (Loop) Drive. We could see the Mountain Tower from this scenic overlook.

We had driven through town on the way to the loop drive and had seen the bath houses. We wanted to see them up close so we drove back in to town to do so. It was bumper to bumper traffic and lots of people walking along the row. Matt dropped me off to explore and left to find parking. I walked along Bath Row taking pictures and then walked through the Fordyce Bathhouse, which houses the National Park Visitor Center and Museum. 

Here is a history of Hot Springs and Bathhouse Row

The Grand Promenade was accessible, but the building next to Fordyce Bathhouse was under construction, making it hard to get pictures. 

I walked through the museum and then met Matt back at the car (he hadn't been able to locate parking where he could "legally" park and join me).

Pictures from the museum.

We left Hot Springs and headed East and then South towards our next stop, Hamburg (AR), grabbing lunch on the way. 

Hamburg, Arkansas is home to the World Famous Armadillo Festival. Because of this festival, the city has placed 6x4 foot fiberglass armadillo statues throughout the town. We found a few as we came in to town and then ran into "road closed" signs...They closed the main roads around the town square for a large carnival. Reading about the carnival later, we found out it was THE WORLD FAMOUS ARMADILLO FESTIVAL!!! We were right there for the world famous festival and didn't participate! What are the odds that we would be driving through the town on the exact same weekend as the festival? Crazy. The town was packed too - so many people and cars! We finished driving around (what parts we were able to) to find a few more statues and then hit the road for Mississippi. 

Side note: while searching for information to add to the blog, I found out that Hamburg is also the hometown of Scottie Pippen (NBA Player from Chicago Bulls, part of the Jordan/3-peat era). I really need to start doing a quick google search on towns we are already planning on stopping in! We would've loved to see the mural that Scottie is a part of (it is in the heart of the dowtown, city park area where they held the festival). 

Here we are - sitting at the stop light, wanting to drive straight to head out of town. Guess not!

We crossed the Mississippi River into Mississippi and drove to Rolling Fork. 

This was our 2nd attempt to see the radio tower from the movie, "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou!" Our first visit in March 2019 found the road flooded. This trip wasn't much different. We could tell that the recent flooding had just receded (the tower is 12 miles from the Mississippi!!) so the gravel roads were pretty boggy. Matt was extremely concerned that we would get stuck if we slowed down or hit a soft spot...so he was pretty nervous during the whole drive (8 miles is a long drive on soggy pea-gravel!)

Here is a picture from the movie - the radio station was a movie set that was only built for the filming. The radio tower is still there.

The drive was unnerving, but we made it!! 

Once back on concrete road, we breathed a sigh of relief and started south to Vicksburg for the night. We found dinner, reserved a room and then made plans for our Day #3...then sweet sleep!

Favorites from Day 2:

Matt: Hot Springs Tower

Becki: Hot Springs Tower