(3) …In which Things Get Better.

Till now, I’ve left out an important part of the story: Pete. He’s a Hot Springs resident, and a couchsurfing.org member. My main goal in Arkansas was to camp and hike alone, but I’d contacted him just in case: even if I didn’t surf his couch, he might be a good person to know. It’s always good to have a friend in a new town, right? I figured maybe we’d go hiking together, since we’re both outdoorsy types.

Well.

Pete is a smart guy: he goes hiking at 6am when it’s still cool. Me, I slept through 6am and decided to hike at 10:00 Friday morning. It was way-too-frickin-hot to hike anywhere, and there I was, struggling my way up the side of a mountain. Pete called me just as I reached the top and started descending into downtown Hot Springs, with a river of sweat flowing down my forehead.

“I’m going swimming later,” he said. “Wanna go?”

Any other day, I might have said no. But the thought of immersing myself in something other than my own perspiration sounded just like heaven, and I gave him a definite YES. And so, a few hours later, Pete and his friend Evelyn picked me up, and we drove out to Lake Ouachita.

(...)
Read the rest of Hot Springs, Arkansas – Serendipity Strikes! (899 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: adventure, Arkansas, buy nothing, couch surfing, couchsurfing, free sources, Hot Springs, outdoors, rideshare, summer, tourism, transportation, travel, water, weather

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(1) …Our narrator arrives.

I’ve always wanted to visit Arkansas. Maybe it’s just the name. Maybe it’s the backcountry, down-home Americana imagery associated with that part of the world. Probably it has a lot to do with the Ozarks, that oddly-named bed of mountains promising lush greenery, clapboard shacks, crawdads and moonshine. Whatever the reason, once I realized Arkansas was right next to Texas (for a soi-disant travel writer, I am remarkably untalented at geography), I couldn’t stay away. And so I booked a midnight bus from Austin, which deposited me in Hot Springs, AR at 8:30 on a Thursday morning.

Hot Springs, as you may or may not know, is the hometown of former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton. It’s also home to the strangest National Park I’ve ever seen. The park was my reason for coming to Hot Springs in the first place, but it ended up being nothing like I expected.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, there are a lot of hot springs around here. Because of the plentitude of pure, superheated, mineral-strong water, people have gathered here for millenia. From the Civil War onward, tourists and health seekers have come from all over the country to visit the bathhouses for spa treatments. And so, instead of a nature-filled National Park with lots of trees and undisturbed waters, Hot Springs National Park is a row of bathhouses.

Why are these photos all taken at night? Because it was too hot to walk around all day.

Yes, it’s a street. With sidewalks, and landscaping, and palatial white buildings promising mineral spas, soaks, rubs, wraps… Too, there’s a hot-water fountain where you can wash your hands, and a cold one where you can fill up on pure spring water. Once upon a time there were free showers; you can still visit and tour a restored bathhouse which doubles as the National Park Visitor Center. But yes, it’s just a street.

So it wasn’t what I’d expected. But I found myself a tent site in the Gulpha Gorge campground, where fireflies flickered above a shallow creek, and which was only a half-hour hike from downtown Hot Springs. The Ouachita National Forest was just outside of town, and I figured I’d camp for a few days, then make my way to the hills and do some hiking and swimming.

Alas, this was not to be!

(...)
Read the rest of Hot Springs, Arkansas – In Which I Get Into Trouble (384 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Arkansas, bus, camping, hiking, Hot Springs, lodging, outdoors, summer, tourism, travel, water, weather

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