Hot Springs National Park

The heart of Hot Springs National Park is water, and where that water comes from is genuinely strange. Rain that fell thousands of years ago sank slowly through cracks in the rock, down to where the earth is warm, and then rose back to the surface here on the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain. Forty-seven springs flow out of the mountainside at around 143 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to steam and to warm your hand at the fountain. The park caps and channels most of them now to protect them, but a couple of open springs still bubble up in plain view so you can see the source for yourself.

In front of the springs runs Bathhouse Row, the most famous stretch of the park and the reason it exists in this form. Eight ornate bathhouses, built in the early 1900s when soaking in mineral water was prescribed like medicine, line one side of Central Avenue. Some have been restored, a couple still run as working baths where you can actually take the waters, one has been turned into a brewery that brews with the thermal spring water, and the grand Fordyce is now the park visitor center. Behind them, the paved Grand Promenade curves along the hill, a quiet half-mile walkway that once let bathers stroll between treatments.

Above and behind all of it, the park climbs into forested Ouachita Mountains. This is the oldest federally protected area in the country, reserved way back in 1832, and it grew up wrapped right around the city of Hot Springs, so a park and a resort town became one place. Trails wind up through oak and hickory woods to a lookout tower on Hot Springs Mountain, and in its heyday the row drew everyone from presidents to ballplayers to gangsters like Al Capone, all come to soak in the same steaming water.

• Central Avenue entrance, right in downtown Hot Springs off AR-7, is the main way in. This is an urban park with no entrance gate and no fee, open year-round: you simply walk up to Bathhouse Row and the springs from the sidewalk. The Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center anchors the row and is the place to start.
• Hot Springs sits in central Arkansas about 55 miles southwest of Little Rock. From Little Rock and Interstate 30, take US-70 west into town; from the north or south, AR-7 runs straight through Hot Springs and up into the park's mountain drives.

• Bathhouse Row is the main event: eight historic early-1900s bathhouses lining Central Avenue, some restored to tour, a couple still running as working baths, one now a brewery, and the grand Fordyce serving as the visitor center.
• The Fordyce Bathhouse, a restored 1915 showplace of tile, marble, and stained glass, offers free self-guided tours through its old soaking rooms and gymnasium, a look at how a luxury bathhouse worked in its prime.
• The Grand Promenade is a paved half-mile walk tucked behind the bathhouses, running along the hillside above Central Avenue with the springs and old fountains along the way.
• The Hot Springs Mountain Tower lifts you 216 feet by elevator to two observation decks, one glassed in and one open air, with a sweeping view over the town, the bathhouses, and the wooded Ouachita ridges.
• The thermal water fountains and jug fountains along and near the row let you fill a bottle straight from the springs for free, hot or cooled, to drink on the spot or carry home.

Long before any bathhouse, the springs were known and valued by Native peoples for thousands of years. Many nations traveled to this steaming valley, and tradition holds that they gathered here in peace, treating the place as neutral ground where old rivalries were set aside so everyone could rest and take the healing waters. Stories passed down speak of a shared valley of the vapors, a common ground open to all who came. The springs were understood as a gift to be used and not fought over, and that spirit of a peaceful meeting place is part of what the park remembers today.

By the 1800s word of the hot springs had spread, and the federal government took the unusual step of setting the land aside in 1832 to keep the springs from being claimed and sold off. That reservation, forty years before Yellowstone, made this the oldest protected area in what would become the national park system, older than the very idea of a national park. Through the late 1800s and early 1900s, doctors sent patients here to soak for their health, and a small industry grew up around the belief that the mineral water could ease all sorts of ailments.

That bathing-for-health era is what built Bathhouse Row. Between about 1892 and 1923 the grand bathhouses rose one after another along Central Avenue, offering baths, massages, and rest to a stream of visitors who came by train from all over the country. The town boomed alongside them, drawing presidents, baseball players in spring training, and, during its wide-open decades, gamblers and gangsters who came to take the waters and place a bet. The whole district was named a national park in 1921, tying the springs, the row, and the mountain woods together into one protected place.

As bathing for health went out of fashion, most of the row's bathhouses closed, and by the mid-1900s the grand buildings sat quiet and fading. The National Park Service later restored the row and found new life for the buildings, reopening the Fordyce as the visitor center and leasing others as working baths, a brewery, shops, and a hotel. Today a working bathhouse or two still fills its tubs with the same thermal water that drew people here two centuries ago, keeping the original purpose of the park alive.

• Hot Springs is the oldest federally protected area in the entire national park system. It was set aside in 1832, forty years before Yellowstone and long before anyone had coined the phrase national park.
• The water is genuinely ancient. Scientists have found that rain falling on the mountains today takes more than 4,000 years to seep down, warm up deep in the earth, and rise back out as a hot spring.
• You can drink it, and it is free. Public jug fountains around the row let anyone fill a bottle with the thermal spring water, and people show up with empty jugs to stock up.
• The 47 springs together pour out hundreds of thousands of gallons of hot water a day at a steady 143 degrees Fahrenheit, year-round, no matter the weather above ground.
• One of the historic bathhouses now operates as a brewery that uses the thermal spring water to make its beer, which may be the only brewery inside a national park anywhere.
• The park is often called the smallest national park by land area, and much of it sits inside the city limits, so the park boundary and the downtown sidewalk share the same block.
• In the early 1900s Hot Springs was a spring-training town for Major League Baseball, and legends like Babe Ruth soaked and worked out here before the season, hiking the very mountain trails that are still in the park.
• The mountain woods above the row are laced with more than 26 miles of trails, so within a few minutes you can go from a marble bathhouse lobby to a quiet forest ridge.

• There is no entrance fee. Hot Springs is a free national park, open year-round, and you can walk right up to Bathhouse Row and the springs from the downtown sidewalk.
• Start at the Fordyce Bathhouse, a restored 1915 bathhouse that is now the visitor center, with free self-guided tours through its old soaking rooms.
• To actually take a bath, one of the historic bathhouses still offers traditional thermal baths much as it has for over a century; a fee applies and reservations can help, so check ahead.
• Drive or hike up to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower for the widest view over town and the Ouachita ridges; a fee applies to ride the elevator to the observation decks.
• Walk the Grand Promenade, a paved half-mile path behind the bathhouses, and look for the open display springs and the free jug fountains where you can fill up with thermal water.
• Because the park is folded into the city, food, fuel, parking, and lodging are all right there on Central Avenue, so no need to stock up before you arrive.

No. Hot Springs is a free national park with no entrance gate and no admission fee. Because the park is woven right into downtown Hot Springs, you simply walk up to Bathhouse Row and the springs from the sidewalk. Some experiences inside the park, like taking a bath in a working bathhouse or riding the elevator up the mountain tower, do charge a fee, but entering the park itself costs nothing.

Yes, though not in the springs themselves, which are capped to protect them. Instead, one of the historic bathhouses on the row still fills its tubs with the natural thermal water and offers traditional baths much as it has for over a century. You book a soak or a spa treatment there and settle into the same hot mineral water that has drawn people here for generations. A fee applies, and reservations can help, so it is worth checking ahead.

Yes to all three: it is safe to drink, it comes out hot, and it is free. The park keeps public jug fountains along and near Bathhouse Row where anyone can fill a bottle straight from the springs. Some fountains run hot and some are cooled for easier sipping. Locals often show up with empty jugs to carry the water home, and you are welcome to do the same.

Hot Springs is one of the most unusual parks in the system because it grew up wrapped around a city instead of out in the wilderness. The springs and Bathhouse Row sit right on Central Avenue downtown, and the protected forest and trails climb the mountain directly behind them. That means the park boundary and the city sidewalk often share the same block, so you can step from a marble bathhouse lobby into a shop or a restaurant and back into the park in a matter of minutes.

The park is open year-round. Since there is no entrance gate, the grounds, the promenade, the springs, and the mountain roads and trails are accessible day and night. Individual buildings and services, like the visitor center, the working bathhouse, and the mountain tower, keep their own daily hours, so it is worth checking the park website for the day you plan to visit.

Yes. Beyond the bathhouses the park climbs into forested Ouachita Mountains laced with more than 26 miles of trails through oak and hickory woods. Many start right behind the row along the Grand Promenade. At the top of Hot Springs Mountain, an observation tower lifts you 216 feet by elevator to two viewing decks, one glassed in and one open air, for a sweeping look over the town, the ridges, and the lakes.

Spring and fall are the most comfortable, with mild days for walking the promenade and hiking the mountain, and fall color from the tower is a highlight. Summers are hot and humid, though the shaded woods and the cool bathhouse interiors help. Winter is quiet and mild, and there is something especially pleasant about a hot soak or a steaming fountain on a cold day. Any season works because the park never closes.

You can walk Bathhouse Row, tour the free Fordyce visitor center, and sip from a fountain in a couple of hours. To add a soak in the working bathhouse, a walk on the Grand Promenade, and a drive or hike up to the mountain tower, plan on most of a day. With nearby lakes, gardens, and museums in town, it is easy to make Hot Springs a full weekend.

Pets on a leash are welcome on the park's outdoor trails, sidewalks, and grounds, including the Grand Promenade, which makes this an easy park to enjoy with a dog. They are not allowed inside the bathhouses or other buildings. Bring water, watch the hot pavement and the very hot spring water on summer days, and check the park website for the current pet rules.

There is no campground and no separate lodge out in the wilderness here, because the park sits inside the city. One historic building on Bathhouse Row operates as a hotel, and the town of Hot Springs is full of places to stay within a short walk or drive of the springs. That is part of the charm: your lodging, meals, and the park entrance can all be on the same street.