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Updated 02/11/23 7:04 PM
Hot Springs National Park
Arkansas' Hot Springs National Park virtually surrounds the town of Hot Springs whose historic bath houses were the reason for preserving it as a national park.
Arkansas
2017
About The Park
Hot Springs National Park is the second smallest park in the National Park system. At only 5,500 acres it could just as easily be a National Historic Landmark district, which it is, with a park behind it. The underground hot springs, which is the basic reason why this National Park exists, dates back to 1832 when it was, by an act of congress, designated to be preserved as a recreation area. As such it is the oldest ‘park’ maintained by the National Park Service but not the oldest national park. It was made a National Park in 1921. According to the National Park Service the park is ‘located within the city of Hot Springs’.
There's nothing wrong with the park’s forested land it's just that there really isn't anything special about it from a scenic standpoint. The bathhouses and the hot springs, from which you can draw water, are all outside of the forest part of the park’s lands and are on, or just off, Central Avenue which is the main street of Hot Springs. The hot springs and the bathhouses are the main feature of Hot Springs National Park.
Hot Springs Historic District
What is interesting about Hot Springs National Park is the National Historic Landmark District which includes Bathhouse Row. Bathhouse Row still contains the same active, albeit updated, architecturally significant bathhouses that were the destination for generations of visitors to Hot Springs. People came for the supposedly healing waters which was probably a more popular vacation destination in decades past. While we did run into people who had come from Texas to soak in the hot spring water I’m sure that just as many people came because it is a National Park.
The National Park visitor center is in what was the old Fordyce bathhouse. It is also a museum where you can take a tour, generally self-
The bathhouses have both public and private baths. You can book rooms for two people or you can, for a smaller fee, soak in one of the larger public pools. My wife and I booked a couples room at the Quapaw bathhouse which was very enjoyable. The bathhouses also provide all the services that one would typically find in a spa – their main feature being that the water is the ancient mineral-
In the town they have fountains with multiple spigots from which you can fill bottles. The Happy Hollow Spring on Hot Springs Mountain Drive dispenses cold water. People come from the surrounding area with many jugs to fill up. Some were filling up large water cooler type plastic bottles and, I suppose, saving themselves money buying bottled water. Three other dispensaries in the town dispensed the 143° hot springs water and I saw very few people filling bottles from that. Refilling most plastic bottles that had bottled water in them with cold water is not recommended because of the breakdown of the chemical BPA in the plastic. My gut feeling is that refilling them with the very hot mineral-
An interesting piece of the town's history is it so-
Between the allure of the thought-
To remember that era, the town has The Gangster Museum of America right in the middle of the historic district which has regular tours and which we found both fun and interesting. They had a substantial collection of artifacts from the gangster era, knowledgeable tour guides with plenty of facts and anecdotes about that time in our history along with videos. I definitely would recommend a visit. The tour is probably no more than an hour or so and the gift shop had many interesting books about that time in America that might provide some bedside reading after touring the National Park. At the end of the tour they had a pair of real 1928 Thompson submachine guns with the round drum magazines that are reminiscent of the type we've all seen in many a gangster movie about that era and on The Untouchables TV series with Robert Stack as Elliott Ness. They were quite heavy and the guides are more than happy to provide you with period hats and photograph you holding everyone's favorite machine gun. You can see a picture of Robert Stack with his 1928 Thompson in the above link and my wife and I holding them in the accompanying photo gallery.
All and all there’s enough in Hot Springs and the surrounding area to make a trip to this national park worth the visit. It’s a different experience than other national parks which are mostly about the amazing scenery. This is as much about the history of America and of a bygone era.
Wildlife
White tail deer, wild turkey, squirrel, rabbit, Virginia opossum, gray fox, coyote, skunk, raccoon, gopher, long-
Lodging
The Waters Hotel
The Waters Hotel is on Central Avenue opposite the Quapaw baths. It’s a boutique hotel with nice modern rooms and a friendly and accommodating staff. Centrally located, it was walking distance from everything in the historic district and some nice restaurants.
Arlington Hotel
At one end of Central Avenue, in the main part of town, is the historic Arlington Hotel. It was in this hotel that Al Capone had a standing suite that he stayed in whenever he came to town. If no one is staying in it the hotel will provide a tour of it. When we were there it was booked. Certainly there is some cachet to staying in Al Capone’s suite. What I read about the Arlington Hotel when I was planning my trip was that the rooms were somewhat dated and it no longer was the grand hotel that it once had been. We did walk into the lobby which had been refurbished, and the dining room, and they were impressive and certainly echoed the grandeur of what once had been. The building still is an impressive structure that one can also look down upon from the top of the Hot Springs Mountain tower.
There are also a number of the large hotel chains in town so lodging options are not a problem.
Hiking
There are some nice hiking trails and at the top of Hot Springs Mountain there's the Hot Springs Mountain tower which has an elevator to the top and have panoramic views of the surrounding area. There is a nice loop road through the park and there are parking areas where you can stop and view the surrounding area from various lookouts. We hiked the Goat Rock trail and the Gulpha Gorge trail. They were relatively short and sweet, reasonably shaded, and given that the temperature was in the low 90s, were all that we wanted to deal with.
Hot Springs National Park Photo Gallery
Other Resources
Hot Springs National Park on the National Parks Service website -
Other National Parks Within a Day’s Drive
Gateway Arch National Park This monumental arch is 410 miles north and about a 6.5 hour drive.
*N*P*Z*
National Parks Zone