Tour of Hot Springs National Park

Friday, May 21, 2021

Welcome to my Travel Friday’s B.R.E.A.T.H.S. blog post. I’m starting my travel blogging with my tour of the United States National Parks© Services (NPS) Last week, I discussed The National Parks Passport Program and how I got started this year collecting the cancellation stamps at each of the different National Parks© Systems, about 420 locations across USA (including American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and & Virgin Islands). My very first cancellation stamp was acquired at Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. 

This was one of my favorite National Parks© I visited. I went on the Hot Springs National Park centennial anniversary and collected these glass jugs. There are two public natural hot springs fountains, one on each end of Bathhouse Row, where people can fill up their water containers. Glass or metal are recommended due to the natural spring water being too hot to handle, drink, or even bathe. 

There was only one working Bathhouse, Quapaw, with four bathing pools cooling the thermal waters to different temperatures appropriate for hot soaking. I tried to take a picture of the four pools inside, but cameras weren’t allowed for other’s privacy. However, I did manage to sneak in a couple shots when people weren’t looking (see video below). 

There seemed to be only one thermal hill with a row of eight bathhouses that lined one side of the road attached to the mountain. The Hot Springs National Park has public trails behind the bathhouses and one road that covers the entire mountain. You can hike or drive to the top where there is a mountain tower and amazing (almost 360) views of the city. I visited during the coldest month in history, so the skies were cloudy and gray, but the park was still beautiful and breathtaking. 

This is my third straight week blogging and I have stretched myself each week learning new things like building a website, using different themes, uploading and sizing pictures in the first week. The second week, I started a YouTube channel and created my first two full length videos over four minutes with no edits or breaks (oh, that was tough but I had to start somewhere). This week, I stretched myself even further and created a movie using iMovie with a collage of pictures, videos, beginning and ending titles, and even background music (now I am a video pro, haha, just kidding)! Please check out my video below and provide some feedback in the comments on this page or on the YouTube page so that I can improve my videos each week. 

Thank you for reading,

Dr. Jaime Brainerd, Ed.D.