After a couple great days in Texas we headed out to Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. This was on our list last time but we ended up skipping it for more time with friends in Oklahoma. This time we made the time to stop. This park is different from all the others we have visited in that it is a town, so along with the natural areas and hiking there is also a lot of shops, homes, and traffic. Oh my it was loud on Bathhouse Row!
Our first stop was to fill cups at a spring. There are many hot springs located throughout the area. We filled our cups and carefully drank the water. It was the perfect temperature to make hot tea but a little warm for a humid June day. Since it was slated to be a warm day we started off the morning with the hiking trails. We took Peak Trail up to the lookout tower. As the sign read it was a fairly short but steep trail. With the high humidity we were all covered in sweat by the time we reached the top. the views were amazing and worth the hike. We spent some time hiking along Hot Springs Mountain Trail and then Short Cut Trail before heading back to Bathhouse Row.
The springs are steaming hot! 
What a beautiful view 
Ants! 
We headed back to the RV for lunch. RV parking was available at the Hot Springs Visitor Center which was super convenient to the park. After lunch we went to Bathhouse row to complete the kids Jr Ranger badges and learn the history of Hot Springs water. We walked though the Fordyce house visitor center and learned how the idea behind the baths was natural healing through minerals, exercise, and fresh air. We imagined what would have happened if these ideas had been focused on more or in conjunction with pharmaceuticals. What a difference we could see in our nations health if we focused on the underlining causes of health issues instead of just the symptoms.
Unfortunately the two bathhouses left in operation are not for families or children so taking the waters was not on our list. It’s mostly ok though, we had a great time in Taiwan soaking at the hot springs there, which were very family friendly.
We finished our day going to the National Park Store, our suggestion to those visiting skip this store and go to the store at the lookout tower. This one had very very little merchandise, where as the lookout towers store was filled with lots of neat local items. We then filled up a few bottles (no pictures were taken since momma takes the pictures and was busy filling water) with hot spring water at a bottle filling station. There are bottle filling stations in multiple places where people pull up with large amounts of jugs to fill with water. We assumed these were people living nearby who used this free spring water as their drinking water.
We returned to our camp, Hot Springs National Park KOA. This was a great place with an older playground the kids had a lot of fun at. Our site boarded a wall of bamboo which made us feel very private, but also a little like we were in China. we spent the late afternoon cooling off in the pool and playing four person ping pong. By twilight the fireflies were out and we spent some time catching them in a jar before going to bed.
Our 6S Full Life 