Hot Springs

2022-07-04
Hot Springs AR

Today was mostly spent as a driving day as we head west. We drove down to Memphis and west across Tennessee. Our planned walking stop at Cypress Grove Nature Park was skipped because they were closed. I thought the sign said because of tornado, but it was a drive by so I'm not positive. Thus we continued on to Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. This is a smaller park and is the one park that has a mandate to give away its resource: spring water. The park has some land which includes the mountain where all the hot springs are, plus some of the original bath houses that which have historically used the water for "health bathing."

I had booked a hotel that I felt really epitomized road trips: a little 50's style motor lodge. This particular decision was a good one. The hotel is just around the corner from the bathhouses, right next to the hiking trails on the mountain, and just down the hill from one of the springs. The rooms were not spacious, but it was plenty nice and cozy for tired travelers.

It was 98 degrees and about the same humidity when we rolled into town, but you don't waste time cowering in AC when you're on a road trip. From my planning, there were four things we wanted to do in Hot Springs so we set off on foot - with camera packs - and started exploring.

The first thing was to tour a bathhouse. Fordyce Bathhouse is both the Visitor's Center and a museum to show us how the bathhouses looked 100 years ago. So many health benefits were proclaimed for the water. I know that a good hot soak can help a lot of things, but I'm not convinced that geothermically-heated water is any better than my hot water heater. But the place is beautiful, with all the health club amenities from a gym to lovely sitting areas. People must have paid a lot to not have to heat their own water. We also strolled along Bathhouse Row to look at the other bathhouses; some are still purveyors of baths, while others are shops or a brew pub.

Number two on the list is to reach into a hot spring. There are a couple to choose from that are still allowed to pool in the open. I think I can sum them up by saying they are hot. And on a 98-degree day, the 130+ F water wasn't a refreshing dip in a pool.

Before talking about number three, a quick digression about water. If you stare at the pre-packing photo, you will see four gallons of water. Specifically, spring water. There are three types of water at my local grocery store: distilled, drinking, and spring. Distilled of course is a terrible idea for hiking; you want your water to contain all the stuff that distillation removes. Drinking water comes from the public water system so the taste varies depending on which water system. For instance, New York City water has been considered one of the best-tasting waters. The third kind of water is spring water which comes from a well or the ground and is filtered or treated by the company. For the brands in my local store, this last one tastes the best of the three. We brought four gallons because we didn't know how much we'd use. As of this point it's about a gallon a day, mostly for drinking but some for cooking.

Which brings us to Hot Springs Bucket List item number three - drink some of the spring water. There are a number of fountains around the city that dispense water from the hot springs and also from some cold springs where the water is not heated but it still runs up through cracks under pressure. It turns out one of these was just 50 yards from the hotel so I grabbed an empty gallon jug and filled it up so we could try it. It was very similar to what we had been drinking and quite good, so before leaving we filled up 3 more gallons, getting us back to our initial four-gallon supply.

The fourth item will have to wait for tomorrow.

Hiking Miles: 3.0 in town