Day 24 trip to Hot Springs National Park.

Today was an hour drive to Hot Springs. This place is very unique in many ways. The Park is right in the town with the same name.  It was also the first unofficial National Park.  They originally called it a reservation because they wanted to protect the land.  They canceled all false claims to the land in 1875.  The park was officially changed to a National Park in 1921.  The other cool thing about Hot Springs is you can pay to take a bath like they did in the 1920's.  Children had to be at least 10 years old, so that wasn't an option for us.  Back in the hay day of the Hot Springs doctors would prescribe people to come to the Hot Springs for 3 weeks and they would take daily baths drink the water and get exercise.  Many People still believe it works.  We took a guided tour of bathhouse row and the Promenade trail.  The ranger had us taste the water on the tour. 

 

It comes out of the springs at about 143 degrees.  I doesn't have much taste, but I'm not really a fan of hot water to drink.  The kids didn't like the hot water either.  Nathan thought it was ok.  There was a guy at the fountain that tried to take over the tour and told us all about the benefits of the water and started to tell us all the famous people who drink the water.  We then walked the Promenade trail which is a brick trail through trees behind the bath houses. 

 

 

It was pretty cool.  After the tour we went back to the visitors center and watched a movie about how the water gets so hot and how long it takes.  We also watched a movie about the process of taking a bath.  We then worked on the Jr. Ranger books for the kids.  Then we walked in front of the bath houses again to finish the Jr. Ranger books.

 

 

We also walked up Central Street and went in a popcorn shop and got some popcorn.  Sora got butter, Nakai got rainbow and I got caramel crunch.  We also went to a cupcake shop and candy store.  The kids got some candy at the candy store.  When I asked Sora what her favorite part of the day was she said the popcorn.

 

We then took the Hot Springs Mountain Trail to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower.  We walked up 306 stairs to the top and could view everything from 216 feet above ground.  They had an outside observation area and then a little lower they had a glass room that showed a lot of information about myths surrounding the area. 

 

 

Nakai and Nathan walked back down the stairs, but Sora wanted to take the elevator, so I went with her. We then continued the drive up the Mountain trail and found a hike called Goat Rock Trail.  We stopped for a little hike, but we ended up on the dogwood trail instead.

 



 

 

 

 

 

We hiked for almost an hour, by the time we got back to the van we were all hungry so we decided to find a place for dinner.  There was a Cracker Barrel not too far away.  Sora ordered Mac and Cheese and didn't like it so I gave her some of my rainbow trout and she liked it!  That is a big time improvement.  She ate about 1/3 of my fish. 

 

Tomorrow we will head for Memphis and then to Mammoth Cave.