Lake Hamilton

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We spent two nights at the historic Lake Hamilton cabins. The owners are so friendly and welcoming. Skip gave us a tour of our cabin and gave us information on the national park and some local attractions. They checked in on us during our stay to see if there was anything else we needed. It's really been a great stay.

The property was owned by Skip's parents. Our cabin was built in 1948, I believe he said. There were four guest cabins built before ours. Ours is the only one with a cement slab, he said. It's two stories with the bedrooms on the main floor to keep them cool. At the time it was built, it had an attic fan, which he said was state of the art back then. Today, it has air conditioning. There is still a lot of vintage details to the place, like the old-fashioned sink and some of the light fixtures. It's all super cute. Right outside our door is a bald eagle's nest! The nest is incredible. We didn't see any eagles, though. I read that the eagles roost from about October through March. Skip said there are 3 active nests in the area, so I think it would be fun to stay here during the winter.

We chose the location because it's right on Lake Hamilton. For Christmas, the kids each got an inflatable kayak, so we put them to good use here at the lake. There are a lot of people who use the lake for their large boats and jet skis, so we made sure to stay near the shore or at the swim beach with our little kayaks. Joanna also had fun swimming in that swim beach.

There was a very memorable family from Texas staying at a cabin nearby. They were memorable because they were just so loud, all the time. Andrew first met them when one of their kids, Anderson, started screaming from the water, "Help! Help! I can't swim!" Andrew dove into the lake to save him, and the kid told Andrew it was just a joke. I hadn't heard that story yet. I first met the family when Andrew and Joanna took the kayaks out. Suddenly, there were a number of piercing screams coming from the lake! I ran out full speed from the cabin and ran into Oliver outside. "Is that Dad and Jo?! Are they OK? What's wrong?!" Oliver said, "Uh, no, I don't think that's them." I ran to the shore to check out what's happening. Turns out Anderson and his siblings (ages 10-16, I would guess) just liked screaming bloody murder. I stood at the shore for awhile, watching. There was a boy in the water who started shouting, "Help! My arms are tired! I can't swim!" I was panicked but none of his siblings around him were. I asked his mom who was watching if she'd like me to jump in and pull him out. She said no, that's how he plays, and then she reminded Anderson he shouldn't be yelling those things. My absolute favorite part of the stay, though, was early Monday morning. Storms started in the middle of the night and were still going Monday morning. Everyone was cooped up in their cabin. From the Texan's cabin, we heard the constant noise of a recorder and a kazoo. Whoever had the recorder could not actually lay the recorder, so it came out in constant short squeaks, punctuated by a few longer, squeaky bursts. I made the family giggle when I commented, "Oh joy, it sounds like Anderson has a recorder!" The squealing continued for hours and put us in fits of giggles more than once.

Even with the Texans, we loved our stay. We liked the resident ducks and geese the best, I think. There are a number of ducks that make this part of the lake their home. One of the owners has named the ducks and told us a lot about them. I forget the name of the duck that hung out under the dock and yelled at the geese, but he was my favorite. Dotty is the girl, and they noticed Dotty was injured while we were there. They're planning on taking her to the vet, but they're worried how her mate will handle it because they've never been separated.

The owners are just so great. Even if we had a repeat of our noisy, memorable neighbors, I would definitely stay at the Lake Hamilton cabins again.

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Photos

Bald Eagle's Nest
In front of our cabin at Lake Hamilton, Arkansas

Inflatable Kayaks at the Swim Beach
Lake Hamilton, Arkansas