Nat Geo Names Hot Springs National Park Bucket List Worthy
I lived and worked in radio in Hot Springs, Arkansas for almost 11 years before coming home to Texarkana. Hot Springs is a unique city but it is a National Park as well.
Hot Springs National Park
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According to National Geographic, it's been deemed "5 Lesser Known National Parks to Add to Bucket List," and for good reason. For many, it is called America's Best Kept Secret because the city is tucked in between two mountains surrounded by the beauty of Ouachita Mountains, with breathtaking scenery at every turn and the constant flow of the Hot Springs thermal waters which run underground this majestic town. Approximately 43 thermal springs encircle the park’s pine, oak, and hickory-forested mountainside with a sense of peace and tranquility.
Did you know that Congress created the Hot Springs Reservation in 1832, 40 years before it established Yellowstone? Before the official park designation in 1921, Hot Springs became known as a destination for those struggling with health issues and disorders.
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It's believed the thermal waters offered comfort and healing powers even Spanish conquistador explorer Hernando De Soto came to Hot Springs looking for the mythical "Fountain of Youth."
How Hot Springs Got Its Name
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Hot Springs got its name from the thermal waters that seeped through the Ouachita Mountain rocks as rainwater more than 4,000 years ago. The average temperature of 143 degrees Fahrenheit (62 degrees Celsius) is heated by the Earth a mile underground.
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Water is then forced up through a fault with Artesian pressure to the base of Hot Springs Mountain where a reservoir collects 700,000 gallons of water. People have traveled miles just to bathe in the thermal waters in the historic Spanish-Victorian colonial-style bathhouses which became known as Bathhouse Row.
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No matter if you are visiting Hot Springs National Park for the first time or many times over there is plenty to see and do in the "Valley of the Vapors" as the native Indians used to call it.
For more information, please visit their website.
Some Alligators In Arkansas You Can Touch - Most You Can't
If you're looking for a great day trip for the whole family may I recommend a fun outing at the Alligator Farm & Petting Zoo in Hot Springs, Arkansas? My wife has been visiting this fun attraction since she was a little girl, we manage to get around to seeing it every couple of years or so and for the most part, it stays pretty much the same, but it's always fun to pet a baby gater.
Gallery Credit: Jim Weaver