There are many State Parks throughout Arkansas with a variety of activities to offer for families. Lake Fort Smith State Parks is located in the Ozark National Forest and is a wonderful place to get away from the city.
As a traveling family we move around quite a bit, but not every place we stay is ideal for a family. We love to share with our readers the great RV camping spots we find in each state. The places we share will always be either family friendly, budget friendly or hopefully both. In Arkansas we were lucky to find several great RV camping sites and we want to tell you all about them.
Little Rock, Arkansas is the capital city and has tons to offer a traveling family. Some people may not consider this place when planning their next family vacation. With so much to do you will surely be planning to come back soon once you have been here.
As I am sure you know, Hot Springs Arkansas is home to Hot Springs National Park. What you might not know, is that it is also home to the Mid America Science Museum. Both of these destinations are incredibly fun to explore with kids.
Perhaps you’ve never heard of a small Arkansas town by the name of Bentonville, but most likely you have heard of a company by the name of Walmart. This company has it’s roots in this small town and it is a great place to visit with kids. There are many attractions that make it a nice place to stop in while visiting Arkansas.
Doing things outdoors is something our family enjoys a great deal. In Arkansas there are endless opportunities for outdoor adventures. This includes mining for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park.
There are some great museums in the United States and Oklahoma City is no exception. If you are visiting the area with kids I highly recommend a visit to The Science Museum Oklahoma and Sam Noble Museum. These are in our opinion the best museums in Oklahoma City to visit if you have kids.
This is a very hands on museum within a very large building. If you have active children, and let’s face it they’re all active, this is a great place to go. There are definitely too many exhibits and displays to cover in this article so I will just highlight a few of the ones we really enjoyed while we were in this awesome Oklahoma City museum.
Climbing structures are always a big hit with kids and this place has two of them. One is designed to look like trees. It has slides, ramps and stairs, as well as air cannons. The cannons are up high and can be moved to shoot different targets, like CD’s and wind chimes dangling from the ceiling.
As a family we have traveled all over America, stopping to check out the capitol in each state. Visiting these places is a great way to learn about an area. We were able to explore Oklahoma’s State Capitol as a family, where we learned more about this unique state. It was a fun and educational way to spend an afternoon.
There are three National Park Service sites in the state of Oklahoma. Each one of Oklahoma’s National Parks provide a unique and interesting experience. They also provide a glimpse into the history of this unpredictable land.
The visitors center in Washita is fairly new and is a great place to begin exploring the area. Watch the video shown here because it really explains it’s importance historically. Explore the museum, it is small, but does a great job showing what happened at the site.
Once you have finished drive down the road a short distance. There is a wonderful self guided walking tour of the battlefield. Make sure to grab the book available at the entrance to the trail. It will help you to understand the event that occurred at this site. Take turns reading it aloud as you walk the trail, there are numbers in the book that correlate with numbers along the trail.
Although what happened here was very tragic, it is an important part of American history. Children, as well as adults, can learn from our nations past mistakes. It is a beautiful landscape and once you see it you might understand why the Native American Tribes fought so hard to keep it natural. The trail is easy, our six year old had no problem walking the entire length.
When thinking of the Texas panhandle, what image first comes to mind? Windmills, of course. So it makes sense that Lubbock is where you will find the largest collection of windmills in the world housed under one roof at the American Windmill Museum.
The railroad industry relied heavily on windmills during the steam engine era. Which is why this is one of the first exhibits on display. It may be one of the best model train scenes I have ever seen.
The details in the miniatures placed throughout the display are impressive. It was designed to look like Lubbock during the heyday of railroads and windmills. Many trains are coming and going through the town, Thomas the Tank Engine even makes an appearance. They have a large spiral ramp the trains climb up and travel high above the room.
After wandering around the train scene you can check out the rest of the miniature collection. There are some very cool pieces on display. The kids each had their favorite, but Journey could have stayed in that area all day.
