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May 2003

Arkansas

David Aaronson
2005-09-29 13:11:46

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so at high water (which of course it was) you'll be wading, log balancing, or rock-jumping. We did a bit of all three.

The highlight of the trail (off of a spur at the midway point) is called 'The Grotto' and features a waterfall pouring over the edge of a small cave. This is a great spot to hang out for a while, and it has good shelter (the cave) if it should suddenly start raining. It might also be noted that in the rain the steep climbs that lead from one hollow to the next become small waterfalls and can be a difficult hurdle.

If you're not up for the Seven Hollows Trail, the highlight of the park is Cedar Falls, seen here from an overlook - this is at very high water so it's quite impressive (8). One can also hike down to the canyon floor and view the falls from the bottom. This is described as the park's most popular hike but it was getting a bit late by the time we got to this part of the park so we skipped it.

Little Rock is the capitol and largest city in Arkansas, although everyone seems to live a ways out in the suburbs around the city (9). The waterfront area downtown is fairly lively on a Saturday night. We had no problem finding a wide array of drinking establishments, food is more difficult however, apparently everyone eats out in the suburbs as well.

An hour's drive south of Little Rock is Hot Springs National Park which has to be one of the strangest units in the US Park system (10). The attraction here is natural hot springs which emerge from the ground with an average temperature of 143F (62 C). The trick is, they've funneled all the hot water through an underground tunnel running underneath a series of bath houses which sprang up from 1880 to 1930. Furthermore, most of the bath houses are closed and not tourable. As an extension, the surrounding mountains are also part of the national park which include some campgrounds and hiking trails. The hiking trails don't hold a whole lot of attraction since most of the peaks and ridges they encompass are also road-accessible. They've also stuck a rather tacky looking tower atop one of the mountains.

Despite all that, there are a couple things worth seeing here in our opinion. The first is the visitor center which is located in the restored Fordyce Bath House and can be toured. This is the gymnasium up on the top floor. Nearby you can check out the turn-of-the-century massage implements (yikes!), changing rooms, and specialty showers (yikes again!) (11). By comparison the equipment in this gym is relatively tame, although that curved thing in the left corner was used for back-flexibility.

The other thing of interest is the few hot springs which you can visit in their semi-natural state. For instance the fountains along bathhouse row are channeled springs - that fuzziness around this one is actually steam coming up off the water. Behind the bath houses are a few springs that haven't been completely urbanized where you can basically confirm that there's some really hot water coming up from underground. As of our visit, just one of the original bath houses was open to the public and by appointment only.

The enormous building here was originally an Army/Navy hospital and is now the Hot Springs Rehabilitation Center. The Buckstaff in the foreground of this picture is the only active bath house now, although several nearby hotels offer spa-related services (12). The rest of the city of Hot Springs has somehow failed to benefit from the tourist draw (and there were quite a lot of tourists) that the park has. There's some commercial/traffic/hot-water themed congestion near Bathhouse Row, the rest of the town is rather run down, although the well-manicured Oaklawn Horse Racing track can be found on the southern edge of town.