Hot Springs National Park.

An early start this Sunday morning, with a clear head helped find what I was looking for. Parked at the visitor centre, and went inside, but was told it was the city visitor centre not the NP visitor centre..... that was a couple of hundred feet up the road. Since it was a Sunday, and the parking meters did not need to be fed, left my car where it was and headed up the street on my little scooter.

The NP in downtown Hot Springs consists of quite some land area, where the campground also is, and three or four of the historic Hot Bath Buildings. The most spectacular of which has tours through it by the rangers. As it was, there was no one else on the tour I took, so had the undivided attention of the ranger.

First he took me into the section of the building which was the treatment baths and stalls for medical conditions. All were marble. Looking at all this, hydro therapy is not such a new concept. There were showers which would aim at the specific parts of the body to be treated, and fire hose type canon sprays which gave the same treatment. Sitz baths, I was told, for those suffering from syphilis and women after childbirth. (These were still in use when I had my family.)

The Women's section which was plain with stalls, baths and showers and like the rest, all of marble.The whole place reminded me so much of the bath houses we used to go to immediately after the war. When I saw the gym, it was an exact replica of the gym I attended about the same time, when I was first in school. It really was a step back in time, even though I believe the house dates back to well before the war.

The men only bath chamber is a large room with pillars and marble benches, with stained glass picture windows of exotic women on the ceiling, and a bronze statue in the centre of the room-sized bath. The whole place is magnificent and very well preserved.

Outside there were the pools large and small of hot spring water. A short walk takes one to the spot where the hot water comes out of the mountain at 143F, with a small pool at its base, which some idiots tried to get into.... and very quickly got out of. There are other bath houses open, which I did not visit. When down that way, this little known, down town, free NP is well worth visiting, as is the small town of Hot Springs.

By lunch time I headed off to my next destination via scenic US-270 and US-71 through the Quachita National Forest to Fort Smith.

Arkansas is a bit like PA, there is hardly a road/route you choose which is not scenic. A wonderful State to enjoy a roadtrip.

Lifey

[p.s. I delayed posting this post, and the rest of the trip so far, as I have some lovely photos which I wanted to include. Unfortunately I have been unsuccessful with uploading them to the site, so have decided to continue posting without pictures. Maybe I will be able to put them up later.]