September 11, 2019 • 26 mins
If Al Capone was alive today, we have a feeling he'd be a Parklandia listener. The notorious gangster was, after all, a lover of national parks, just like us! Or at least he was known to frequent the thermal baths at Hot Springs National Park. This episode, we explore this bustling Arkansas mountain city, along with the history, heritage, not to mention craft beer and bath salts it has to offer. Hot Springs is truly not your typical National Park!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
If al Capone was alive today, I have a feeling
he'd be a park landy a listener. Yeah, he was
apparently a national park lover just like us. Yeah, or
at least he used to frequent the thermal baths at
Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, along with a boatload
of other politicians, professional athletes, and foreign dignitaries, all drawn
to this place like moths to a luxurious flame. In
(00:22):
case it wasn't already clear, Hot Springs is not your
typical national park. In fact, it couldn't be more different
from places like Yellowstone Olympic or even the Everglades. That's
right here in the heart of this bussing little Arkansas
mountain city. Hot Springs National Parks serves up history and
heritage with the side of craft beer and bath salts,
and it's well worth a visit. Hi, I'm Matt and
(00:46):
I'm Brad. This is park Landia. We packed up our
life in Chicago, moved into an RV, and now we're
traveling in the country full time, visiting America's national parks.
And today we're talking about Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.
Thanks for listening. History, Hot Springs National Park is really
(01:09):
a little odd bowl of a park. I mean, for starters,
it's tiny, one of the smallest national parks in the country.
It's only about yeah, So to put that in perspective
a little bit. By comparison, the largest national park in
the US, Wrangle st Olias and Alaska, is thirteen point
two million acres. You can fit a lot of Hot
Springs there. Yeah, and actually it's primarily an urban park.
(01:32):
I mean, there's some nature, but most of the park
is actually situated around the town of Hot Springs, Arkansas, right,
which is a historic, vintage looking town amidst these rolling
green mountains in the Wachita Mountain range near the Ozarks. Yeah,
it's an old park too. Even though it wasn't made
an official national park until nineteen it was initially protected
(01:52):
as Hot Springs Reservation by Congress in April of eighteen
thirty two. So, in other words, this was the first
time the US government had ever set aside land for
protection any forum. This was almost a full century before
the National Park Service became a thing, in a full
forty years before Yellowstone became America's first national park. It's
(02:12):
pretty crazy and amazing stuff. Yeah, I think that made
this place so special to begin with, and why they
designated it and where their protection is its namesake thermal waters,
which have a long and said to contain medicinal properties
and be revered both by neighbor Americans and apparently also
by gangsters and baseball players. Because sure, yeah, the hot
(02:34):
springs flow off the western side of the Hot Spring
Mountain and they're the primary reason the place has been
preserved as a National park, right. I think one important
thing to clear up about hot springs first and foremost
is that this isn't the type of place where you
can take a dip in natural hot springs in the woods.
There's actually none of that here whatsoever, which might be
a bummer to some people. I know, like when I
(02:56):
was first thinking, like when I was younger, I like
think of hot springs Artawark, I would assume that there
were these natural springs like in the woods or something. Instead,
the National Park conserves this amazing water for public use
in other ways by managing the water flow and pumping
into the town for use in these ornate spas and bathhouses,
(03:16):
and even in drinkable form and sparkling water and beer. Yeah,
people have long been flocking here for those springs and
especially those bath houses. In fact um Hot Springs, Arkansas
earned the nickname the American Spa due to the largest
number of thermal treatments and spas along what is now
called Bathhouse Row. Yeah. I love that. So this main
(03:36):
street forms the heart of the park, this Bathhouse Row.
But this lineup of gorgeously designed, huge, luxury, luxury bathhouses,
each one with this gilded aid to architecture that looks
like something off the Titanic or something. It's incredible. And
this road features these beautiful fountains billowing with steam that
kind of interspersed along the sidewalks like between these buildings.
(03:57):
It's really beautiful. Yeah. At one point all these buildings
were used as actual bathhouses and spas, but nowadays only
two of them are still used for this purpose, as
most others have been repurposed into visitor centers, museums, and
a brewery. But more on that later. Yeah, I'm shomping
at the bit to talk about that brewery. I love it. Yes,
so cool. Yeah, bath House Row is actually so cool
(04:20):
um that it was actually designated a National Historic Landmark
all on its own in n Yeah, that's the year
of my birth. So I now feel and you found
kinship with bath house row we're both the same. Well
now it's been around long time, so we're not in
the same so that's ridiculous. But anyway, today the only
two bathhouses still in use for their original purpose are
(04:41):
the buck Staff and Quapa buildings, both of which offer
these elaborate spas, services and treatments. Yeah, and back in
the day that people soaked here because the thermal waters
are said to help cure things like um rheumatism. And
since there's been so many health advances in the past century,
that's why the bathhouse culture has taken such a decline. Yeah,
(05:02):
kind of kind of aboutmer I guess, but it's really cool,
I mean, not about our it's good that health advance
has happened. What am I saying? Um, it's really cool
to come here though, because it's like kind of traveling
back in time to this like byron Ornate era, and
you get to luxury it a little bit in that
and the only thing missing really is like champagne. While
(05:23):
we so okay, I wish we could have had that.
I think like when we took our bath, we asked
if alcohol us aloud and they're like no, and we're like, well,
what a shame, you know, that shame right, geology. But
let's talk about the basic water facts first, like the
fact that the park contains forty seven natural hot springs
pumping out more than a half a million gallons of
(05:46):
water per day. It comes out of the ground at
three degrees fahrenheit. Yeah, it's definitely hot or in that designation,
and much of that water being pumped out that's much
too hot for bathing. So thankfully they cooled down to
a comfortable jacuzzi like temperature for use in the bathhouses.
Very comfortable. Yeah. But even though there was like some
(06:07):
hot springs here for centuries, the town wasn't always filled
with bathhouses and fancy tubs. No, no, these aren't naturally
occurring bathhouses. For thousands of years, indigenous tribes lived in
the area, and they're the ones who discovered these hot
springs and how they could be used, and so they
started to use the hot thermal waters for their healing properties.
(06:29):
They called this place the Valley of Vapors, which I
love that name. I think it's so cool. Yeah, they
had these crude hot like structures that they build along
Hot Springs Creek. So this is like a far precursor
to these opulent like mansion looking buildings on bath House
Row for sure. Yeah, I know it's unfortunate because you know,
(06:51):
as the case with too many settlers and developments. The
Native Quapa Indians gave up their land to the U.
S Government in eighteen eighteen, and they were basically forced
onto nearby reservations. Yeah. Arkansas then became an official state
the following year in eighteen nineteen, and the area is
quickly set aside for protection. Then fast forward a couple
more centuries and Brad and I are taking a dip
(07:13):
in some of the famous and legendary water. Yeah. The
bath was really nice and relaxing when we went, I mean,
we did a couple soak and had our own little
private room. So nice. I'm so glad we did that.
That was really relaxing and perfect. The bathhouse also has
this huge communal tub which looked beautiful like this ancient,
(07:33):
reminding me of like an ancient gigantic Roman bath or something,
with these little waterfalls splashing into this gigantic mega tub
and these these like chic lounge chairs all around the room.
It was really lovely, but I think we both needed,
like we just wanted kind of more privacy. We didn't
want to be like floating around with a bunch of strangers. Yeah,
and we also got to select our own bath salts
(07:54):
um that we want to use for the soak because
we had the private room and it's nice because the
water pumps in from a jet. Just imagine when we
were here, we took in the same types of old
fashioned tubs that al Capone used to soak in. Yeah,
and just think too, he used to live in Chicago
just like us and visit some of our favorite restaurants
like Italian Village. He even has like his own booth
(08:17):
at Italian Village, or at at least they pointed out
and tell you so. So between our Chicago connection and
the fact that we essentially took a bath with al
Capone in spirit, yeah, I mean he was a bumbed
right down the street from we have like a weird
connection to al Capone. This really just cemented it. And
I've I've never felt closer to al Capon. Yeah, I mean,
(08:38):
aside from the fact that he's an awful person who
committed like really horrible and hainas crimes um and I
feel like he had a great taste in restaurants, national parks,
and bathtubs. Yeah, he really did too bad. He made
awful life decisions. After this short break, will continue to
talk about Hot Springs National Park. Hi, I'm Matt and
(09:21):
I'm Brad. This is park Landia. Today we're talking about
Hot Springs National Park trails. When we visited Hot Springs,
we were driving across the country from Las Vegas to Durham,
North Carolina to visit my sister for Christmas, and Hot
Springs was the perfect little detour. Yes it was. I
(09:43):
can't think of a better pit stop than a regal bathtub.
And the town is just so cute too, that town
of Hot Springs, Arkansas. But a really impressive amount of
independent restaurants and bakeries in these but like over the
top opulent old school hotels too. Yeah. I mean when
you get there, you definitely take the time to stroll
down bathhouse roll and the surrounding streets, and then you
(10:05):
stop into that mountain valley spring water visitor center and museum. Yeah,
that was what like a total surprise. And I think
Hot Springs is really the one and only place where
a museum dedicated to water is actually awesome. Yeah, and
they were so nice there too, and they were very
passionate about the town's water. The building was huge and lofty,
(10:25):
with these historical displays information all over the second floor.
On the first floor there was a bunch of water
themes swag, of course, and all the water you could drink. Yeah,
water themes swag. I love it. I actually bought a
spring water like T shirt that I'm obsessed with, and
I wear it a lot and I get a lot
of compliments on the people pointed out the love that
I really love that shirt, although sometimes the backfires and
(10:49):
someone recently thought it was they mistook the water and
they thought I was wearing a smearnof vodka shirt and
I'm like, no, no, no, debsoinitely not. But I so
love it. And while we're at this place, we also
stocked up on a variety pack of flavored spring water,
which might have been a mistake in our part, because
I feel like the sparkling water here set such an
(11:10):
impossibly high bar for all other sparkling waters and now
I'm obsessed and forever ruined on sparkling water. Yeah, but
you tend to get obsessed with things pretty quickly, That's true.
I tend to go all in right away. And there's
not a lot of middle ground there. I mean, they're
obsessed to like an unhealthy degree immediately or completely disinterested,
(11:31):
and this water was clearly the former. I'm all in
with the Hot Springs water. Are we done fangirling over
this water here? I mean? Another place we have to
stroll is to the brick walkway behind the bathhouse. It's yeah,
it's this very nice flat trail, if you can call
it trail. It's mostly just like a glorified large sidewalk,
and it slopes up along the base of Hot Springs
(11:53):
Mountain behind on the rear side of bathhouse row. So
once you're up there, you have this nice raised vista
of down on Hot Springs, and you can also see
more of these steaming fountains along the way. It's all
really really pretty. Yeah. Another nice thing about the Hot
Springs here is that they don't actually have um that
bad sulfur smell like the ones that yellow don't. Yeah right,
(12:13):
these are just so like pure and clean, no bad
smells at all, just pure goodness, like lovely experience altogether.
And there's plenty of things to explore here too. I mean,
you visit another time on your own and did some
hiking to the surprise of no one. Yeah, of course,
classic me. I spent today here by myself as well,
on another like solo trip, and that's when I got
(12:36):
to hike to the top of Hot Springs Mountain, which
is really more like a giant hill than a mountain,
to be honest. It's not huge, not very strenuous. They
gets steep at some parts, but it's really not a
long hike, and once you're up there, the valley views
are really nice and so green, just like rolling lush
green forests, but like a little bit of steaming, smoky
(13:00):
vibes happening. I'm not sure. I think a lot of
us from the Hot Springs and also just like foggy
and misty, it's all very um it's beautiful, and it's
really quite a site and very achievable. You can johned
up there and just like an hour. Yeah, you know.
And when the Hot Springs actually got upgraded to a
National park status, protected land was increased, you know, to
(13:23):
include places like the Hot Springs Mountain, Sugar Loaf Mountain,
North Mountain and West Mountain. Yes, that's true. And you
know what goes well with hiking beer food, Now that
we're finally ready to talk about the beer at Hot Springs,
something that I feel really sets this place part more
(13:46):
than any other National park. Yeah. Absolutely. I just think
it's like the coolest thing ever that one of the
bathhouses on Bathouse Road is now a brewery, which is
called fittingly Superior Bathhouse. Nice little homage. It's the only
brewery within a National Park and the only brewery on
Earth making beer with thermal spring water like this, and
since the water is so healthy, it's basically good for you.
(14:08):
Yeah right, or at least better than your typical I
pas or PBRs. Anyway, this beer you can feel good about,
and it even tastes delicious. It tastes very very good.
And they do a great job. And they have this lengthy,
impressive list of beers on draft in a wide array
of styles and seeing seasonal variations like they have sours,
they have brewed I p a s, won't, real stouts,
(14:30):
Irish reds, even something like a honey Basil Calsh beer.
They really run the gamut. It's a lot. It's really
so good, and it's a cool beer to drink, and
such a beautiful environment like this um and it's in
one of those historical buildings that we're talking about with
such rich architecture, I know. And the food is great
here too. They have this elevated gastro pub vibe going on,
(14:52):
which makes sense and totally fits. So they have things
like giant pretzels and bronze ruben sandwiches and our favorite
thing ever, blistered shoshido peppers. Whenever I see like seshida peppers,
I just have to have them. Yeah, I know, they're
so satisfying with like the perfect amount of heat, unless
you get one of those super spicy ones. Those ones
are a little too much. I know, I know that's always,
(15:14):
but it's like the fun part. Like one from what
we're told, one in every ten shido peppers is like
scorchingly spicy allegedly, so it's like a little bit of
a little bit of risk, which I like. I like
risk with my app pezzers. Before I was actually like
drinking this beer, I already felt high from that bath
that we had it and we were I mean, you
(15:35):
just you feel like you're on cloud nine, just all
the like you're just released. I don't know what's with
that water, but once it's on the outside of you,
and then it goes on the inside of you and
just feel relaxed. Yeah, we basically floated along Bathhouse Row
after that because we also have like this little cucumber
water that they give us too, so we're like, that's right, yeah,
(15:57):
rolling in it u it. Now in terms of like
our v accessibility, we didn't camp here or stay here.
We were just passing through. But even though this whole
area is technically a small city, it was very doable.
I had to sirk around town a couple of times,
but we were able to find parking st right near
Bathous Row and it all worked out really easily. I
actually parked right in front of that the Spring Mountains water. Yeah,
(16:21):
that's how we found it because we didn't know that existed.
We didn't look that up or anything, but we were
parked right in front of the main doors. So we're like, oh,
this is here, let's go into the water museum. And
I'm really glad we did. Yeah, me too. Now, also
Hot Springs. This clearly it's in the kind of park
where you're likely to see a ton of wildlife because
it's much more urban than most. What you mostly see
(16:43):
is like families and beer drinkers and maybe some want
to be gangsters. Yeah, it's perfect for beat people watching. Um.
But it should be noted though that there are plenty
of camp rounds and RV parks in and around Hot Springs,
so for future reference, this would be a great place
to camp and spend more time. Totally. Yeah. So now
after this short break, we're going to talk about our
(17:05):
favorite parts of Hot Springs National Park. My favorite. Hi,
I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Land yet
and we are wrapping up our Hot Springs National Park
(17:25):
episode talking about our favorite things at the park. So
do you want to go first? You want to talk
about what your favorite part of Hot Springs was? Do
you want to talk about what your favorite part is? Sure?
I think I'm ready. My favorite part of Hot Springs.
I think it's probably superior bathhouse, the brewery. Um. Yeah,
(17:46):
it's just like the coolest thing ever. I've done it twice,
both times have been to Hot Springs. It's the thing
I've returned to. I just think it's the most unique
thing for in every aspect the fact, that's the only
brewer with International Park, the only brewery in the world
making beer like this with thermal spring water. And it's
just really like icing on the cake that the beer
(18:07):
tastes really good, because like all those aspects like, oh
this is really cool, unique, but does it taste good?
And you're like maybe a little hustan at first, but
they do really good, cool and clean menu. You know,
it's not over the top, and you know they have
a lot of hurdles to go over because they're using
that water source there in the like historical building, so
(18:31):
like they have to be very careful and what they
do and and what they've been able to overcome to
make that food and those beers is truly amazing. Yeah,
and we have pretty high beer standards to like we
I mean not only coming from Chicago where there's so
many breweries and amazing, amazing beer, so we were accommended
(18:51):
to that kind of but also like in our travels
to various cities and states, like we go to a
lot of breweries and have our favorite things, and this
place definitely holds its own like it's worthwhile. It's a
beer destination in and of itself. I think hot Springs.
So it's actually kind of funny. On that like trip
from Las Vegas to North Carolina, we had two beer
(19:14):
stops and we brought two different types of beer for
the holidays. Yes, this is like a weird beer theme
broachap for us, I guess. Yeah. We had Brawn Bone Arrow,
one of our favorite breweries in the country from Albuquerque,
from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and yeah, they have some just great, um,
great beers. But we picked up that and then we
picked up this beer and we brought it to my
(19:36):
sisters and we all enjoyed it together, which was nice,
you know, after of course I was having it there right, Yeah,
because that's the whole experience too. It's like the beer
is delicious, and I would happily drink that anywhere, but
it takes it to a whole another level by drinking
it at Superior Bathhouse in these amazing historic confines with
great service here. They're very friendly, very accommodating, and happy
(19:59):
to provide sam balls and tastes of the various beers
because there's a lot. There's like twelve or thirteen on taps,
so you want to kind of sample things and like
see what they have. Yeah, I would say my favorite
thing was definitely the bathhouse itself. Going into that and
coming out like it was just like I said earlier,
(20:20):
cloud nine, I was on cloud nine and I left that,
I was on cloud nine for the rest of the
day umbly even the next day, like to be honest,
I mean, I was so happy. I was relaxed. I
was relieved. And I can definitely see where like the
Native American indigenous people they came and use those waters
for healing, because the way you feel when you get
(20:42):
out of them, um, So that that was truly a
beautiful it was. Yeah. Yeah, and that room. I think
we should also talk about that room a lott about
our private bathroom because like the room itself is clearly
very old and historic, has this kind of well worn
flora tile and pile's wall hole on the walls, but
the bath itself is very modern. The tub seemed very modern, like, um,
(21:06):
a very sleek, clean two person tub with these jets
that are like very very precisely manufactured to just scent,
temperatures and everything. It's very comfortable. So it was really nice.
And then I think we also had like this little bell,
like an actual bell, right in case we needed service
or like more bath salt or something, so you could
ring ring this little actual bell. I feel so uncomfortable
(21:29):
dringing that bell. I feel like I'm like, no, that's
not I know. I felt like I was calling for
like a servant or something, and that's just not not
for me. We didn't we didn't use the bell. No, no, no,
but I was tempted. Yeah. So that was a good
time and I'm so thankful we did it, and a
great level like road trip stop. For the three things
(21:51):
I would bring, I would definitely bring an appetite and
taste for beer, good good beer. That would be one thing, um,
I guess I would bring you. And I would definitely bring,
like I was gonna say, a bathrow but you know what,
they have enough to provide them for you. Yeah, that's true. Um.
(22:15):
The things that I would bring, I guess would be
maybe a bathing suit. I don't know if it's well, yeah,
especially if you're gonna be taking a communal bath, like
come on, you're going to need that. It can't be naked, Um,
so bring that. I would also suggest bringing I mean again,
appetite related thing because I feel like this is such
(22:37):
a wonderful food destination, food and bever destination. There's a
lot of it, and that's one of the benefits that's
come from from being a little bit of an urban park.
I got a good one for your third one. What
you need to bring a thirst for knowledge because there's
so much history there. Yeah. True, So I guess I
have fourign you have to today to bring an actual thirst,
(22:58):
like a literal thirst, and then a thirst for no edge,
and then drink it all in because there's a lot
of everything here and it's all great, all great. So
let's talk about our dream trip to Hot Springs. Okay, yes,
So personally, I'd like more pampering and there's plenty of
that to go around here. I want more beer, also,
(23:18):
plenty of that to go around. I would also like
to stay at one of those decadent, vintage looking hotels
that we saw, because there's a few of those that
like they've been around for quite a while, like the
Hotel Hot Springs. Yeah, especially that one or the Park Hotel.
They just look like they've been there since the al
Capone era. And maybe he's stay there, I don't know,
maybe he slept in the same room and there's also
(23:40):
this beautiful chic, beautique property which I'm pretty sure it's
much newer but looks just as gorgeous. It's called the Waters,
and that name is the coolest thing ever, just so perfect. Yeah,
that polace looked really awesome, and that was right downtown
on bath Houts Row. It couldn't be more convenient, and
it has the most beautiful, full high end restaurant called
(24:01):
The Avenue with food like grilled watermelon salad and cornmeal
fried oorysters and pimento cheese with Jimmy churry. Cannot beat
that so good. So I think I actually wrote a
story at one point calling Hot Springs like the ultimate
national power for foodies, because we talked about this after there.
We didn't like eat in no places, but it's immediately
(24:23):
apparent that like this is definitely a dining destination, and
after visiting so many national parks, I definitely stand by that.
I think it'd be fun to come here really just
like bar hop and restaurant hop around Hot Springs, because
there's so many places that we saw or that I've
researched and read about that I'm dying to go to,
especially the one that I mainly want to go to
(24:44):
is this place called the Ohio Club, and it's the
oldest bar in Arkansas with lots of whiskeys and live music,
both of which we love. And it used to have
gambling too, which is cool. Not anymore, but you know,
I like the backstory. And then naturally, unsurprisingly, al Capone
loved it here. Like you said, the man has good taste.
(25:11):
You've been listening to the Parklandia Podcast, a show about
national parks by iHeart Radio, created by Matt Kerouac, Brad Carouac,
and Christopher hassiotis produced and edited by Mike John's executive
produced by Christopher hassiotas special thanks to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters,
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If you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on
(25:33):
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Thank you so much for listening.
If al Capone was alive today, I have a feeling
he'd be a park landy a listener. Yeah, he was
apparently a national park lover just like us. Yeah, or
at least he used to frequent the thermal baths at
Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, along with a boatload
of other politicians, professional athletes, and foreign dignitaries, all drawn
to this place like moths to a luxurious flame. In
(00:22):
case it wasn't already clear, Hot Springs is not your
typical national park. In fact, it couldn't be more different
from places like Yellowstone Olympic or even the Everglades. That's
right here in the heart of this bussing little Arkansas
mountain city. Hot Springs National Parks serves up history and
heritage with the side of craft beer and bath salts,
and it's well worth a visit. Hi, I'm Matt and
(00:46):
I'm Brad. This is park Landia. We packed up our
life in Chicago, moved into an RV, and now we're
traveling in the country full time, visiting America's national parks.
And today we're talking about Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.
Thanks for listening. History, Hot Springs National Park is really
(01:09):
a little odd bowl of a park. I mean, for starters,
it's tiny, one of the smallest national parks in the country.
It's only about yeah, So to put that in perspective
a little bit. By comparison, the largest national park in
the US, Wrangle st Olias and Alaska, is thirteen point
two million acres. You can fit a lot of Hot
Springs there. Yeah, and actually it's primarily an urban park.
(01:32):
I mean, there's some nature, but most of the park
is actually situated around the town of Hot Springs, Arkansas, right,
which is a historic, vintage looking town amidst these rolling
green mountains in the Wachita Mountain range near the Ozarks. Yeah,
it's an old park too. Even though it wasn't made
an official national park until nineteen it was initially protected
(01:52):
as Hot Springs Reservation by Congress in April of eighteen
thirty two. So, in other words, this was the first
time the US government had ever set aside land for
protection any forum. This was almost a full century before
the National Park Service became a thing, in a full
forty years before Yellowstone became America's first national park. It's
(02:12):
pretty crazy and amazing stuff. Yeah, I think that made
this place so special to begin with, and why they
designated it and where their protection is its namesake thermal waters,
which have a long and said to contain medicinal properties
and be revered both by neighbor Americans and apparently also
by gangsters and baseball players. Because sure, yeah, the hot
(02:34):
springs flow off the western side of the Hot Spring
Mountain and they're the primary reason the place has been
preserved as a National park, right. I think one important
thing to clear up about hot springs first and foremost
is that this isn't the type of place where you
can take a dip in natural hot springs in the woods.
There's actually none of that here whatsoever, which might be
a bummer to some people. I know, like when I
(02:56):
was first thinking, like when I was younger, I like
think of hot springs Artawark, I would assume that there
were these natural springs like in the woods or something. Instead,
the National Park conserves this amazing water for public use
in other ways by managing the water flow and pumping
into the town for use in these ornate spas and bathhouses,
(03:16):
and even in drinkable form and sparkling water and beer. Yeah,
people have long been flocking here for those springs and
especially those bath houses. In fact um Hot Springs, Arkansas
earned the nickname the American Spa due to the largest
number of thermal treatments and spas along what is now
called Bathhouse Row. Yeah. I love that. So this main
(03:36):
street forms the heart of the park, this Bathhouse Row.
But this lineup of gorgeously designed, huge, luxury, luxury bathhouses,
each one with this gilded aid to architecture that looks
like something off the Titanic or something. It's incredible. And
this road features these beautiful fountains billowing with steam that
kind of interspersed along the sidewalks like between these buildings.
(03:57):
It's really beautiful. Yeah. At one point all these buildings
were used as actual bathhouses and spas, but nowadays only
two of them are still used for this purpose, as
most others have been repurposed into visitor centers, museums, and
a brewery. But more on that later. Yeah, I'm shomping
at the bit to talk about that brewery. I love it. Yes,
so cool. Yeah, bath House Row is actually so cool
(04:20):
um that it was actually designated a National Historic Landmark
all on its own in n Yeah, that's the year
of my birth. So I now feel and you found
kinship with bath house row we're both the same. Well
now it's been around long time, so we're not in
the same so that's ridiculous. But anyway, today the only
two bathhouses still in use for their original purpose are
(04:41):
the buck Staff and Quapa buildings, both of which offer
these elaborate spas, services and treatments. Yeah, and back in
the day that people soaked here because the thermal waters
are said to help cure things like um rheumatism. And
since there's been so many health advances in the past century,
that's why the bathhouse culture has taken such a decline. Yeah,
(05:02):
kind of kind of aboutmer I guess, but it's really cool,
I mean, not about our it's good that health advance
has happened. What am I saying? Um, it's really cool
to come here though, because it's like kind of traveling
back in time to this like byron Ornate era, and
you get to luxury it a little bit in that
and the only thing missing really is like champagne. While
(05:23):
we so okay, I wish we could have had that.
I think like when we took our bath, we asked
if alcohol us aloud and they're like no, and we're like, well,
what a shame, you know, that shame right, geology. But
let's talk about the basic water facts first, like the
fact that the park contains forty seven natural hot springs
pumping out more than a half a million gallons of
(05:46):
water per day. It comes out of the ground at
three degrees fahrenheit. Yeah, it's definitely hot or in that designation,
and much of that water being pumped out that's much
too hot for bathing. So thankfully they cooled down to
a comfortable jacuzzi like temperature for use in the bathhouses.
Very comfortable. Yeah. But even though there was like some
(06:07):
hot springs here for centuries, the town wasn't always filled
with bathhouses and fancy tubs. No, no, these aren't naturally
occurring bathhouses. For thousands of years, indigenous tribes lived in
the area, and they're the ones who discovered these hot
springs and how they could be used, and so they
started to use the hot thermal waters for their healing properties.
(06:29):
They called this place the Valley of Vapors, which I
love that name. I think it's so cool. Yeah, they
had these crude hot like structures that they build along
Hot Springs Creek. So this is like a far precursor
to these opulent like mansion looking buildings on bath House
Row for sure. Yeah, I know it's unfortunate because you know,
(06:51):
as the case with too many settlers and developments. The
Native Quapa Indians gave up their land to the U.
S Government in eighteen eighteen, and they were basically forced
onto nearby reservations. Yeah. Arkansas then became an official state
the following year in eighteen nineteen, and the area is
quickly set aside for protection. Then fast forward a couple
more centuries and Brad and I are taking a dip
(07:13):
in some of the famous and legendary water. Yeah. The
bath was really nice and relaxing when we went, I mean,
we did a couple soak and had our own little
private room. So nice. I'm so glad we did that.
That was really relaxing and perfect. The bathhouse also has
this huge communal tub which looked beautiful like this ancient,
(07:33):
reminding me of like an ancient gigantic Roman bath or something,
with these little waterfalls splashing into this gigantic mega tub
and these these like chic lounge chairs all around the room.
It was really lovely, but I think we both needed,
like we just wanted kind of more privacy. We didn't
want to be like floating around with a bunch of strangers. Yeah,
and we also got to select our own bath salts
(07:54):
um that we want to use for the soak because
we had the private room and it's nice because the
water pumps in from a jet. Just imagine when we
were here, we took in the same types of old
fashioned tubs that al Capone used to soak in. Yeah,
and just think too, he used to live in Chicago
just like us and visit some of our favorite restaurants
like Italian Village. He even has like his own booth
(08:17):
at Italian Village, or at at least they pointed out
and tell you so. So between our Chicago connection and
the fact that we essentially took a bath with al
Capone in spirit, yeah, I mean he was a bumbed
right down the street from we have like a weird
connection to al Capone. This really just cemented it. And
I've I've never felt closer to al Capon. Yeah, I mean,
(08:38):
aside from the fact that he's an awful person who
committed like really horrible and hainas crimes um and I
feel like he had a great taste in restaurants, national parks,
and bathtubs. Yeah, he really did too bad. He made
awful life decisions. After this short break, will continue to
talk about Hot Springs National Park. Hi, I'm Matt and
(09:21):
I'm Brad. This is park Landia. Today we're talking about
Hot Springs National Park trails. When we visited Hot Springs,
we were driving across the country from Las Vegas to Durham,
North Carolina to visit my sister for Christmas, and Hot
Springs was the perfect little detour. Yes it was. I
(09:43):
can't think of a better pit stop than a regal bathtub.
And the town is just so cute too, that town
of Hot Springs, Arkansas. But a really impressive amount of
independent restaurants and bakeries in these but like over the
top opulent old school hotels too. Yeah. I mean when
you get there, you definitely take the time to stroll
down bathhouse roll and the surrounding streets, and then you
(10:05):
stop into that mountain valley spring water visitor center and museum. Yeah,
that was what like a total surprise. And I think
Hot Springs is really the one and only place where
a museum dedicated to water is actually awesome. Yeah, and
they were so nice there too, and they were very
passionate about the town's water. The building was huge and lofty,
(10:25):
with these historical displays information all over the second floor.
On the first floor there was a bunch of water
themes swag, of course, and all the water you could drink. Yeah,
water themes swag. I love it. I actually bought a
spring water like T shirt that I'm obsessed with, and
I wear it a lot and I get a lot
of compliments on the people pointed out the love that
I really love that shirt, although sometimes the backfires and
(10:49):
someone recently thought it was they mistook the water and
they thought I was wearing a smearnof vodka shirt and
I'm like, no, no, no, debsoinitely not. But I so
love it. And while we're at this place, we also
stocked up on a variety pack of flavored spring water,
which might have been a mistake in our part, because
I feel like the sparkling water here set such an
(11:10):
impossibly high bar for all other sparkling waters and now
I'm obsessed and forever ruined on sparkling water. Yeah, but
you tend to get obsessed with things pretty quickly, That's true.
I tend to go all in right away. And there's
not a lot of middle ground there. I mean, they're
obsessed to like an unhealthy degree immediately or completely disinterested,
(11:31):
and this water was clearly the former. I'm all in
with the Hot Springs water. Are we done fangirling over
this water here? I mean? Another place we have to
stroll is to the brick walkway behind the bathhouse. It's yeah,
it's this very nice flat trail, if you can call
it trail. It's mostly just like a glorified large sidewalk,
and it slopes up along the base of Hot Springs
(11:53):
Mountain behind on the rear side of bathhouse row. So
once you're up there, you have this nice raised vista
of down on Hot Springs, and you can also see
more of these steaming fountains along the way. It's all
really really pretty. Yeah. Another nice thing about the Hot
Springs here is that they don't actually have um that
bad sulfur smell like the ones that yellow don't. Yeah right,
(12:13):
these are just so like pure and clean, no bad
smells at all, just pure goodness, like lovely experience altogether.
And there's plenty of things to explore here too. I mean,
you visit another time on your own and did some
hiking to the surprise of no one. Yeah, of course,
classic me. I spent today here by myself as well,
on another like solo trip, and that's when I got
(12:36):
to hike to the top of Hot Springs Mountain, which
is really more like a giant hill than a mountain,
to be honest. It's not huge, not very strenuous. They
gets steep at some parts, but it's really not a
long hike, and once you're up there, the valley views
are really nice and so green, just like rolling lush
green forests, but like a little bit of steaming, smoky
(13:00):
vibes happening. I'm not sure. I think a lot of
us from the Hot Springs and also just like foggy
and misty, it's all very um it's beautiful, and it's
really quite a site and very achievable. You can johned
up there and just like an hour. Yeah, you know.
And when the Hot Springs actually got upgraded to a
National park status, protected land was increased, you know, to
(13:23):
include places like the Hot Springs Mountain, Sugar Loaf Mountain,
North Mountain and West Mountain. Yes, that's true. And you
know what goes well with hiking beer food, Now that
we're finally ready to talk about the beer at Hot Springs,
something that I feel really sets this place part more
(13:46):
than any other National park. Yeah. Absolutely. I just think
it's like the coolest thing ever that one of the
bathhouses on Bathouse Road is now a brewery, which is
called fittingly Superior Bathhouse. Nice little homage. It's the only
brewery within a National Park and the only brewery on
Earth making beer with thermal spring water like this, and
since the water is so healthy, it's basically good for you.
(14:08):
Yeah right, or at least better than your typical I
pas or PBRs. Anyway, this beer you can feel good about,
and it even tastes delicious. It tastes very very good.
And they do a great job. And they have this lengthy,
impressive list of beers on draft in a wide array
of styles and seeing seasonal variations like they have sours,
they have brewed I p a s, won't, real stouts,
(14:30):
Irish reds, even something like a honey Basil Calsh beer.
They really run the gamut. It's a lot. It's really
so good, and it's a cool beer to drink, and
such a beautiful environment like this um and it's in
one of those historical buildings that we're talking about with
such rich architecture, I know. And the food is great
here too. They have this elevated gastro pub vibe going on,
(14:52):
which makes sense and totally fits. So they have things
like giant pretzels and bronze ruben sandwiches and our favorite
thing ever, blistered shoshido peppers. Whenever I see like seshida peppers,
I just have to have them. Yeah, I know, they're
so satisfying with like the perfect amount of heat, unless
you get one of those super spicy ones. Those ones
are a little too much. I know, I know that's always,
(15:14):
but it's like the fun part. Like one from what
we're told, one in every ten shido peppers is like
scorchingly spicy allegedly, so it's like a little bit of
a little bit of risk, which I like. I like
risk with my app pezzers. Before I was actually like
drinking this beer, I already felt high from that bath
that we had it and we were I mean, you
(15:35):
just you feel like you're on cloud nine, just all
the like you're just released. I don't know what's with
that water, but once it's on the outside of you,
and then it goes on the inside of you and
just feel relaxed. Yeah, we basically floated along Bathhouse Row
after that because we also have like this little cucumber
water that they give us too, so we're like, that's right, yeah,
(15:57):
rolling in it u it. Now in terms of like
our v accessibility, we didn't camp here or stay here.
We were just passing through. But even though this whole
area is technically a small city, it was very doable.
I had to sirk around town a couple of times,
but we were able to find parking st right near
Bathous Row and it all worked out really easily. I
actually parked right in front of that the Spring Mountains water. Yeah,
(16:21):
that's how we found it because we didn't know that existed.
We didn't look that up or anything, but we were
parked right in front of the main doors. So we're like, oh,
this is here, let's go into the water museum. And
I'm really glad we did. Yeah, me too. Now, also
Hot Springs. This clearly it's in the kind of park
where you're likely to see a ton of wildlife because
it's much more urban than most. What you mostly see
(16:43):
is like families and beer drinkers and maybe some want
to be gangsters. Yeah, it's perfect for beat people watching. Um.
But it should be noted though that there are plenty
of camp rounds and RV parks in and around Hot Springs,
so for future reference, this would be a great place
to camp and spend more time. Totally. Yeah. So now
after this short break, we're going to talk about our
(17:05):
favorite parts of Hot Springs National Park. My favorite. Hi,
I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Land yet
and we are wrapping up our Hot Springs National Park
(17:25):
episode talking about our favorite things at the park. So
do you want to go first? You want to talk
about what your favorite part of Hot Springs was? Do
you want to talk about what your favorite part is? Sure?
I think I'm ready. My favorite part of Hot Springs.
I think it's probably superior bathhouse, the brewery. Um. Yeah,
(17:46):
it's just like the coolest thing ever. I've done it twice,
both times have been to Hot Springs. It's the thing
I've returned to. I just think it's the most unique
thing for in every aspect the fact, that's the only
brewer with International Park, the only brewery in the world
making beer like this with thermal spring water. And it's
just really like icing on the cake that the beer
(18:07):
tastes really good, because like all those aspects like, oh
this is really cool, unique, but does it taste good?
And you're like maybe a little hustan at first, but
they do really good, cool and clean menu. You know,
it's not over the top, and you know they have
a lot of hurdles to go over because they're using
that water source there in the like historical building, so
(18:31):
like they have to be very careful and what they
do and and what they've been able to overcome to
make that food and those beers is truly amazing. Yeah,
and we have pretty high beer standards to like we
I mean not only coming from Chicago where there's so
many breweries and amazing, amazing beer, so we were accommended
(18:51):
to that kind of but also like in our travels
to various cities and states, like we go to a
lot of breweries and have our favorite things, and this
place definitely holds its own like it's worthwhile. It's a
beer destination in and of itself. I think hot Springs.
So it's actually kind of funny. On that like trip
from Las Vegas to North Carolina, we had two beer
(19:14):
stops and we brought two different types of beer for
the holidays. Yes, this is like a weird beer theme
broachap for us, I guess. Yeah. We had Brawn Bone Arrow,
one of our favorite breweries in the country from Albuquerque,
from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and yeah, they have some just great, um,
great beers. But we picked up that and then we
picked up this beer and we brought it to my
(19:36):
sisters and we all enjoyed it together, which was nice,
you know, after of course I was having it there right, Yeah,
because that's the whole experience too. It's like the beer
is delicious, and I would happily drink that anywhere, but
it takes it to a whole another level by drinking
it at Superior Bathhouse in these amazing historic confines with
great service here. They're very friendly, very accommodating, and happy
(19:59):
to provide sam balls and tastes of the various beers
because there's a lot. There's like twelve or thirteen on taps,
so you want to kind of sample things and like
see what they have. Yeah, I would say my favorite
thing was definitely the bathhouse itself. Going into that and
coming out like it was just like I said earlier,
(20:20):
cloud nine, I was on cloud nine and I left that,
I was on cloud nine for the rest of the
day umbly even the next day, like to be honest,
I mean, I was so happy. I was relaxed. I
was relieved. And I can definitely see where like the
Native American indigenous people they came and use those waters
for healing, because the way you feel when you get
(20:42):
out of them, um, So that that was truly a
beautiful it was. Yeah. Yeah, and that room. I think
we should also talk about that room a lott about
our private bathroom because like the room itself is clearly
very old and historic, has this kind of well worn
flora tile and pile's wall hole on the walls, but
the bath itself is very modern. The tub seemed very modern, like, um,
(21:06):
a very sleek, clean two person tub with these jets
that are like very very precisely manufactured to just scent,
temperatures and everything. It's very comfortable. So it was really nice.
And then I think we also had like this little bell,
like an actual bell, right in case we needed service
or like more bath salt or something, so you could
ring ring this little actual bell. I feel so uncomfortable
(21:29):
dringing that bell. I feel like I'm like, no, that's
not I know. I felt like I was calling for
like a servant or something, and that's just not not
for me. We didn't we didn't use the bell. No, no, no,
but I was tempted. Yeah. So that was a good
time and I'm so thankful we did it, and a
great level like road trip stop. For the three things
(21:51):
I would bring, I would definitely bring an appetite and
taste for beer, good good beer. That would be one thing, um,
I guess I would bring you. And I would definitely bring,
like I was gonna say, a bathrow but you know what,
they have enough to provide them for you. Yeah, that's true. Um.
(22:15):
The things that I would bring, I guess would be
maybe a bathing suit. I don't know if it's well, yeah,
especially if you're gonna be taking a communal bath, like
come on, you're going to need that. It can't be naked, Um,
so bring that. I would also suggest bringing I mean again,
appetite related thing because I feel like this is such
(22:37):
a wonderful food destination, food and bever destination. There's a
lot of it, and that's one of the benefits that's
come from from being a little bit of an urban park.
I got a good one for your third one. What
you need to bring a thirst for knowledge because there's
so much history there. Yeah. True, So I guess I
have fourign you have to today to bring an actual thirst,
(22:58):
like a literal thirst, and then a thirst for no edge,
and then drink it all in because there's a lot
of everything here and it's all great, all great. So
let's talk about our dream trip to Hot Springs. Okay, yes,
So personally, I'd like more pampering and there's plenty of
that to go around here. I want more beer, also,
(23:18):
plenty of that to go around. I would also like
to stay at one of those decadent, vintage looking hotels
that we saw, because there's a few of those that
like they've been around for quite a while, like the
Hotel Hot Springs. Yeah, especially that one or the Park Hotel.
They just look like they've been there since the al
Capone era. And maybe he's stay there, I don't know,
maybe he slept in the same room and there's also
(23:40):
this beautiful chic, beautique property which I'm pretty sure it's
much newer but looks just as gorgeous. It's called the Waters,
and that name is the coolest thing ever, just so perfect. Yeah,
that polace looked really awesome, and that was right downtown
on bath Houts Row. It couldn't be more convenient, and
it has the most beautiful, full high end restaurant called
(24:01):
The Avenue with food like grilled watermelon salad and cornmeal
fried oorysters and pimento cheese with Jimmy churry. Cannot beat
that so good. So I think I actually wrote a
story at one point calling Hot Springs like the ultimate
national power for foodies, because we talked about this after there.
We didn't like eat in no places, but it's immediately
(24:23):
apparent that like this is definitely a dining destination, and
after visiting so many national parks, I definitely stand by that.
I think it'd be fun to come here really just
like bar hop and restaurant hop around Hot Springs, because
there's so many places that we saw or that I've
researched and read about that I'm dying to go to,
especially the one that I mainly want to go to
(24:44):
is this place called the Ohio Club, and it's the
oldest bar in Arkansas with lots of whiskeys and live music,
both of which we love. And it used to have
gambling too, which is cool. Not anymore, but you know,
I like the backstory. And then naturally, unsurprisingly, al Capone
loved it here. Like you said, the man has good taste.
(25:11):
You've been listening to the Parklandia Podcast, a show about
national parks by iHeart Radio, created by Matt Kerouac, Brad Carouac,
and Christopher hassiotis produced and edited by Mike John's executive
produced by Christopher hassiotas special thanks to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters,
and the rest of the Parklandia crew and Hey listeners.
If you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on
(25:33):
Apple Podcast. It helps other people like you find our show.
You can keep up with us on social media. Check
out photos from our travels on Instagram at Parklandia Pod,
and join in the conversation in our Facebook group, Parklandia Rangers.
Thank you so much for listening.
Parklandia News
Hosts And Creators
Brad Kirouac
Matt Kirouac
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