After our harrowing drive into town, we found a campsite at the Hot Springs National Park. We counted ourselves very lucky since it was a Saturday evening and it was a lovely 85 degrees.
Hot Springs National Park is the most developed national park in which either of us has been to, ever. The National Park is a city inside a city with history dating back to a time long before America’s discovery.
So, what makes the hot springs hot? Well it isn’t because it is in a volcanic region. Basically rainfall is absorbed into the earth through pores and fractures in the rock. As the water makes its way down it is heated by warmer and warmer rocks, about 4 degrees every 300 feet. Eventually it surfaces.
All this hot water is pumped into bathhouses along Bathhouse Row.
As well as to water jug filling stations all throughout the city.
During the 17th and 18th centuries travelers came to this area to…well…bath. There was no need to build a fire, hang a pot, go get water for the pot, wait for it to heat, then find something to hold the water in big enough to crawl in and soak and wash.
Here they just slid down into a steaming stream. Later propriety won out and the business minded cashed in by building bath houses with private tubs and soaking pools.
We did not go to any of the Hot Springs because….well it was hot. I don’t like to soak in hot tubs when it is 85 – 90 degrees outside, so we just wandered the streets, and filled up our water jugs.
