By: Heather
Today we visited Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was quite a chilly day (in the 50’s) for people who had just spent the last 4 months in Florida. We all wore hats and long sleeves. We started out walking by beautiful blossoming trees on the way to visit Bath House Row where we could visit the Visitor’s Center and Historic Fordyce Bath House. 
Bug and Pie were quite surprised when they stuck their hands in a fountain outside and the water was HOT! It was also surprising to see steam coming off the fountain due to the cool outside air.
Inside the bath house we visited many rooms where patrons had once come for baths, medical treatments, and massages. 
Bug asked us if the water was heated by lava deep under ground, which sounded possibly feasible to us. Apparently though, the water is heated by radioactive isotopes deep under ground, and still is around 140 degrees when it comes to the surface. That was a bit harder for him to understand. After visiting the many rooms of the bath house and the natural spring in the basement, we went and had lunch. 
When we came back we were ready to tackle the trails on Hot Springs Mountain and the observation tower at the top. We could see quite far from the top of the tower, including bath house row where we had just explored. 
Afterward we went hiking on the trails. Kevin had a map but Pie was leading the way. Both kiddos were quite excited to be running through the woods. Little Miss Kicky Feet slept through most of the hike, snuggled warmly in her Tula carrier. I especially liked the flowering trees along the trail.
Once we were back down off of the mountain we stopped at a couple of water stations where we filled up water bottles with spring water to drink. One station was from a cold spring and another was from the hot springs. The water was quite good and there were some people filling up there that had many many gallon jugs to fill. All in all it was a very nice relaxing day spent together. 🙂
The Ready Rovers 