Hot Springs National Park

On an earlier trip, I railed against the “National Park” designation being given to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, arguing that it should be a National Monument or Historical Park or similar. I felt that National Parks should be truly natural in composition, minimizing human development.

One might therefore wonder if I harbor the same feelings toward Hot Springs National Park. The answer is “I’m not sure”!

The feature of the park is Bathhouse Row, a line of several buildings that used the hot water from the nearby springs to provide “therapeutic” benefits to patrons. Much of the information in the Visitor Center concentrates on the history of the hot springs and the evolution of the bathhouses. This certainly makes it more of a historic site.

However, the Park Service owns large tracts of land on the hills surrounding the downtown. These lands are kept wild, with trails (and in one case, a one-way road) on them. The hills offer many scenic vistas, and the trails offer a chance for some solitude in the woods. This conforms more to my vision of a National Park.

No matter what I think, it will remain a National Park. It was so named a century ago when many of the other NPS designations of today did not exist or were just coming into use, so I will excuse it for that reason!

I found the information about how the water gets from rainfall to hot spring perhaps the most interesting aspect of the park. It seems rainwater seeps through the ground to a point where it gets heated to near boiling. That forces it quickly up through seams in the rock until it reaches the surface along one of the aforementioned hills, then flows down the hill to waiting bathers. What impressed me was the timescale. The water flowing out of the springs is not last week’s rainfall. Rather, the journey can take centuries for the water to complete its cycle. Yes, centuries!

There are places within town where spring water is captured in basins and one can walk up and touch it. Do so carefully! It really is hot – hotter than the temperature at which most houses have their hot water heater set. Even knowing this, like a Siren’s call, these basins seem to compel people to stick a hand in the waters. I did not see one person who passed a basin yet did not “test the waters”, including me!

The city of Hot Springs maintains a multistory parking garage one block from the center of Bathhouse Row. Parking is completely free! I think many people don’t know this as I saw several private lots nearby charging $5/hour for parking in open, less secure lots (the city garage has a satellite police station within it).

There are still two operating bathhouses in town, with most of the others owned by the Park Service and open for displays or as gift stores. The main Visitor Center is in a bathhouse about midway along the row. It offers a short video and lots of informative exhibits about the hot springs.

There is a campground a few miles from the downtown area, along with a large picnic area, both located in a valley with a pleasant stream running alongside.

This is one of those places I’d like to return to so I can enjoy some of the trails in the hills around town.

Steve