Hot Springs National Park

Posted on Thu 16 February 2023 in Travel Log

Spa City

Hot Springs makes for the second National Park in the books for me. I collected a fridge magnet from both and plan on loading out the freezer door with them in the camper. The city of Hot Springs has a long history - gangsters used to retreat there back in the prohibition times, and they brought a lot of the criminal activities with them. There's a lot of interesting old architecture in the buildings & streets and when you walk around on Bathhouse row you feel like you're taking a step back in time.

I stayed at the National Park campground and had a site right on Gulpha creek. There were hiking trails that could take you from the campground two miles through the woods and over the mountain to the historic Bathhouse Row area - one of which was converted into a brewery. A few times I hiked over after work, had dinner and brews, and stumbled back over the mountain by headlamp.

On Wednesday morning I woke up to it pouring rain. It continued to rain all day and night and finally stopped at 9pm that evening. It was some of the heaviest rain I've ever experienced. The creek levels continued to rise, I was concerned I was going to have to evacuate. At 12:00pm right as I was starting a meeting for work, I heard a siren outside. Not being from the area I had no idea what it was for - tornado? flash flood? I quickly pulled out my handheld radio and tuned into the NOAA Weather Radio, which was sounding the emergency alert system for flash flooding in the area. Luckily, the creek stayed below the retaining wall, although it really was a river now. I later found out from the campground host that the siren was a weekly test they perform at noon every Wednesday, so that was just a coincidence.

Friday I checked out the visitor center, walked on the Grand Promenade, did some shopping and took an elevator ride to the top of the observation tower on Hot Springs Mountain. The only thing I didn't get around to doing was taking a bath in one of the historic bathhouses. Definitely recommend checking it out, had a lot of fun and could see myself going back, at least for a bath!