Went to Hot Springs and it was incredibly fun, like surprisingly fun.
The drive was super pretty and the mountain road to get there from Dardanelle was even called Scenic Route 7 so there you go.
We didn't know what to expect but we had the whole day and wanted to go so we did. We get there are it's this random town with super old buildings and Johnny is a champion and found free parking (an old town means no parking) and we went to the visitor's center which as an old bath house from the early 1900s and a very nice park volunteer (the Hot Springs is a national park) told us about everything and we went to tour the facility (it is an old bath house and it is now a museum). The foyer was beautiful and tiled and has an old coat check and an old front desk (where the park volunteer fellow was). As we left a gentlemen experiencing homelessness who had been sitting in one of the wicker chairs along the front windows got up to tell the nice volunteer fellow about how he saw a tyrannosaurus rex.
The tour was really cool and everything was really well preserved.
Everything was really pretty and cool and free. Apparently the hot springs are always like 145 degrees or something and they just flow freely down the mountain but they have all been covered up because a main stream used to run down the middle of the town where the main road now is because it was getting too polluted. But the hot spring are all still there and several of the old bath houses are renovated - a few are still spas and one is a brewery and one is being restored and one is the visitor's center.
Then we went for a hike up the mountain behind "bath house row" and it was pretty and steep and then we went to the brewery because I wanted to try a beer made from the hot springs water and then we ate delicious food and then I bought soap and then we forgot to stop to get some of the hot springs water which you can get for free from random fountains around town and I pouted but only for a bit.
The drive was super pretty and the mountain road to get there from Dardanelle was even called Scenic Route 7 so there you go.
We didn't know what to expect but we had the whole day and wanted to go so we did. We get there are it's this random town with super old buildings and Johnny is a champion and found free parking (an old town means no parking) and we went to the visitor's center which as an old bath house from the early 1900s and a very nice park volunteer (the Hot Springs is a national park) told us about everything and we went to tour the facility (it is an old bath house and it is now a museum). The foyer was beautiful and tiled and has an old coat check and an old front desk (where the park volunteer fellow was). As we left a gentlemen experiencing homelessness who had been sitting in one of the wicker chairs along the front windows got up to tell the nice volunteer fellow about how he saw a tyrannosaurus rex.
The tour was really cool and everything was really well preserved.
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| Johnny and Chelsea in the original elevator car |
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| Men's "changing room" |
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| One of the rooms |
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| What the attendants would wear |
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| Electric shower (doesn't seem safe) |
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| Pretty stained glass ceiling in the men's side of the bath house |
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| Very suggestive fountain in the men's side of the bath house |
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| Tub where they would do physical therapy |
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| Recovery area where they could lounge around and where Johnny now reads plaques about people lounging around |
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| Gymnasium! |
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| Hot springs being hot |
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| People in the early 1900s used to really like walking around on promenades so here is a promenade. There used to be a gazebo on top. Don't know where it is now. |
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| Hot springs! |
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| Hot springs! |
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| An example of one of the bathhouses exterior |
Reminds me of the 1994 movie “Road to Wellness”.😂
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