The journey of life becomes more beautiful when you take on some interesting smaller and actual journeys inside of it. With this thought, we started towards a beautiful road trip towards a very legendary and picturesque place called Hot Springs in Arkansas State of the great United States. Arkansas is a very beautiful state that is full of national forests and blessed with unique earthly treasures. The place that we went to is called the Hot Springs National Park.
After traveling for about four hours from our place via road, we reached the Hot Springs area of Arkansas and settled down into our cozy hotel room. The next morning we got ready in our sports gear and set off towards the Hot Springs National Park. The unique thing about this place is that this place is full of natural Hot Springs. These are lovely hot water pools filled with naturally heated thermal waters. The temperature of these waters is approx. 143 degrees Fahrenheit or 62 degree celsius. Besides the park there is a very charming town full of historic bath houses. We walked through the town and came to one natural thermal water pool. We marveled at these waters. Mother earth is truly amazing! We touched these beautifully calm waters and experienced the natural heat in it.
How are these waters formed? Hot Springs is located in the Ouachita Mountains. It is along the ridges of the Ouachita mountains specifically called the Zig Zag mountains. The Ouachita mountains were formed when two tectonic plates collided about 300 million years ago. Cracks formed in the rocks during this collision due to bending and breakage.
When rain and melted snow trickle onto the cracks of the rock and they go all the way down towards the core of the earth, such water gets heated up. The water becomes hot only because it reaches the depth of the Earth where the temperature is very hot. Due to the high pressure, the water is propelled to the surface of the Earth, where there are openings. It is estimated that this whole journey of water from the surface of the Earth towards the core of the earth and back to the surface of the Earth takes over 4400 years.
Isn’t that amazing?
The resulting hot water contains various minerals. These are caused by the interaction of water with the earth’s rocks.
In the olden days this place used to be the mecca for people for healing purposes. There used to be many bath houses which were offering private baths or semi-private baths for people who have some kind of ailment. People would come and take bath in these bathhouses and they would be provided with therapeutic bathing in these “Healing Waters”.By the 1900s, the hot springs had become known as “the place where the crutches were thrown.” After their bath, people were given opportunities to relax in the lap of nature, massage, and exercise.
Even today there are two bath houses that are working with the same natural water springs and we had the opportunity to actually experience one such hot water pool. After soaking in this water for about thirty minutes, I felt very rejuvenated and relaxed. After this went on hiking expeditions into the beautiful Ouachita Mountains!
We traveled for about two hours through thick forested areas and visited the “Little Missouri” waterfalls. We trekked to the waterfall and spent some time amidst the refreshing water cascades. We had a simple packed lunch near the falls and came back.
Another peculiarity of this place is that the Ouachita Mountains are home to unique quartz crystals. There are sites where people dig in the soil and find crystals. Many stores also sell these quartz crystals. During my hike I found a large crystal.
Today this place is very famous for its thermal waters. You can soak in those thermal waters, or you can drink the spring water from the fountains or you can hike densely wooded slopes like how we did. All in all it was a very beautiful journey and we learned so much more about what our mother earth is capable of. I look forward to my visit there again and soaking in the healing water of Hot Springs.
Note: This is a loose translation of original article in Kannada published in Udayavani Desiswara. The original article can be found at the link below:
https://yatri-journeys.com/all-my-kannada-publications/
