Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas is home to one of the most underrated National Parks in the United States.

After seeing to many people talk about how they were underwhelmed by it, I had to visit. Taking a week long dog friendly road trip through North West Arkansas, we spent two days in Hot Springs.

This town has something for everyone. An adorable downtown area, fantastic scenic drives, gorgeous views, great beer, and even a little bit of history. I can see why some people think there’s not much to the area… especially if you’re used to the mind blowing views of some of the National Parks out west, but we fell in love with the area!

ACCOMODATIONS IN HOT SPRINGS

The first thing we did when driving into the area was finding our campground. If you are camping, you will want to try to book your stay in the Gulpha Gorge Campground. This campground is right in town, and walking distance to quite a bit. Unfortunately for us, it was completely booked up so we had to find another park. There are quite a few options. What you should pick will just depend on how primitive you want to go. I came across expensive exclusive RV parks and primitive sites.

We decided on the Crystal Springs Campground. It sits about 30 minutes west of Hot Springs directly on Lake Ouachita. The drive back and forth was worth it to be nestled off in nature directly on the lake.

If you prefer a real bed and air conditioning vs becoming one with the sounds of nature at night, there are a lot of other great options as well! This area is full of furnished cabins, fancy hotels, cute eclectic motels, and you can even stay in one of the famous bath house hotels like Hotel Hale where the rooms have thermal spring water soaking tubs.

THE NATIONAL PARK

Hot Springs National Park itself is a little less about the grand waterfalls and roaming bison like some of the more popular parks, and more about the thermal hot springs and history behind them. This park is right smack in the middle of downtown. Don’t let that fool you though, there are still great views and plenty of things to do.

The main draw of this park is Bathhouse Row. Starting in 1892, one bathhouse after another began construction in order to have a place for people to visit, stay, and enjoy the thermal waters of the hot springs. In 1987 the area was turned into a National Historic Landmark.

Some of these buildings have remained the same or similar, with soaking pools and cave saunas. Others, like the Superior Bathhouse were turned into more modern things over the years like a Brewery. You’ll find the National Park visitors center inside the Fordyce.

We had our pup Lily with us on this trip, and it was her very first camping road trip. Still being a little weary of crowded spaces… Superior Bathhouse is the only building we went to explore, since their brewery is VERY dog friendly!

Along Bathhouse Row you’ll also find plenty of shops, restaurants, and more. Directly behind the bathhouses is a paved trail, the Grand Promenade. This is a lovely walk with some spots to stop and rest and enjoy the surroundings. You’ll also find a couple of other trail heads off the Promenade if you want to get off the beaten path.

SEE AND DRINK THE WATER

There are a handful of places you can get your hands (or bottles) on some of the thermal spring water in Hot Springs National Park. There are fountains up and down Reserve st and in between some of the bath houses. For a list of the exact locations, click on over to the NPS website https://www.nps.gov/hosp/planyourvisit/thermal-springs.htm

I think it might be worth noting here as well to be careful what you pour your water into. As we were wandering down the street, one of the most popular fountains we saw had pretty hot water coming out of it, and a lot of people were letting it fall directly into their plastic jugs and cups. Doing this will cause microplastics to melt off into your water.

I saw everyone filling up and stuck my water bottle under a faucet, and didn’t realize it was hot water until it started burning my hand through the plastic! (I just assumed it was cooled water based on the vessels I saw people using. Ooops.)

There are also two places you can see the natural water without fountains, there it’s cool enough to touch. Both the Display Spring and the Hot Water Cascade. The Hot Water Cascade being most popular, right at the Arlington Lawn.

SCENIC DRIVES AND VIEWS

If views are your thing, you’re in for a treat. If possible, I’d really recommend waiting until the autumn colors come through to make your trip here. The entire east side of the country is full of yellows, oranges, reds, and more.

There are two different sections with drives and views you can access. The north side and the west side. Let’s talk north first. This is the side closest to the Grand Promenade. If you wanted, you could hike a handful of trails up without needing to drive and reach most of this mountain. If you don’t want to hike, there’s always the Hot Springs Mountain Scenic Drive. At the end of the downtown area, you can pop on this road and take some switchbacks to the top of the mountain.

At the top you’ll find a picnic area, a nice little overlook with a built out pagoda, a tower you can climb to soak in the views, and a handful of trails that will lead you on to other views as well.

Arkansas really isn’t known for having altitude, so you may giggle at the thought of a town at only around 1000 feet having a 200ft tower, but the Hot Springs Mountain Tower Overlook is certainly worth checking out. This tower gives you panoramic views of the whole park and town.

On the western side of the town is the West Mountain Scenic Drive. It takes you to the Summit Loop and there you’ll be able to stop at a small handful of overlooks showing you views of Bathhouse Row, as well as a few places there are picnic tables so you can stop and enjoy your lunch.

HIKING

There are over 26 miles of hiking trails within Hot Springs National Park. If you stay in the Gulpha Gorge Campground, you won’t even need to get in your car to get to some of them!

The east coast is pretty tick heavy so while some of these trails are well traversed and beaten down, there are a few that are a little more wild. If you pick one of those, take all the necessary precautions. I never really thought twice about doing more than adding some bug spray and a hat, but then we got a dog. We kept her on the trail, checked for any hitchhikers after each hike, invested in one of those not-cheap tick collars for those hikes, as well as her typical flea and tick preventative she takes every few months.

If you want to do the longest trail in the park, see a lot less people than the busy main drag, and get to see the more remote parks of nature, you’ll want to fit in the Sunset Trail. It’s about 10 miles in length (and that’s just in one direction). There are a couple of sections so you could do multiple out and back hikes (from sugarloaf, west, or stonebridge). If you want to turn this long hike into a loop trail, it will give you around 17 miles of hiking once you combine it with hot springs, north and west mountain trails.

If you want to try some shorter trails, Hot Springs and North Mountain are the more heavily trafficked ones due to how close they are to the main drag. There are a dozen different short (many under a mile) that are all interconnected, so pick up a copy of a trail map from the visitors center if you don’t use gps on your phone.

One I’d recommend that we did sits at the top of the mountain, with access just a bit down the road from the tower. The Goat Rock Trail is just over a mile (one way). You can either use it as a 2 mile out and back trail, OR you can do one way as long as you don’t mind tacking on some extra distance and having to walk down the north mountain loop road to get back to your vehicle.

The west mountain is a little less busy than the north, if you want to get in some extra miles. You can do the Whittington Park loop, which is only a mile or so and has a place you can fill up your water bottle with cold spring water!

From there you can get on the Mountain Top Trail, and even connect the West Mountain Trail (or hop on the Sunset for a real busy day). With lots of intersections, you can take a half mile out and back, or link a bunch of them together for around 3 miles or so. Just note, there is a bit of elevation gain since you will be climbing up a small mountain.

EXPLORING THE MAIN DRAG OF HOT SPRINGS

If you visit Zion, you’ll be able to hang out in the hip little area of Springdale. Going to Arches? Spend a day in Moab. Stroll downtown Montrose after you get done wandering Black Canyon of the Gunnison. What good would a National Park be without a cute cozy little town nearby to take all of your money? Lol.

Hot Springs is no exception. Except. Well, it’s literally smack in the middle of the town.

There are no shortage of tourist shops, restaurants, and hang outs along Central Ave, and the surrounding areas. They have a Gallery Walk which is the first Friday of the month from 5-8pm, plus other events like chili cookoffs and halloween festivals.

Shopping wise you’ll find anything you’d typically find in a tourist town. Tons of Arkansas themed things. Little gift shops selling some handmade goods. A couple of clothing stores. Cupcake and popcorn shops. Wineries. Toy shops.

The Galaxy connection is an interactive museum featuring all things from the galaxy. We aren’t talking asteroids and black holes… but Superheros and Starwars! While we’re talking museums, there’s also a Gangster Museum of America. Come in the middle of the summer and need to cool down? They even have a theme/water park!

There are a bunch of restaurants, coffee shops, and things like that as well. I only stopped at one, so that’s the one I’ll highlight here.

SUPERIOR BATHHOUSE BREWERY

Did y’all really think I could do a post on this town without bringing up their brewery?

This place was amazing. Located inside of one of the bathhouses, walking around you can still see all the architecture. Their big selling point is that they are the both the only brewery INSIDE a national park, and the only brewery in the entire world that uses thermal spring water.

Set right at the end of bathhouse row, this building sits up against a huge outdoor area where people are hanging out and enjoying the park. They have a big outdoor seating area, as well as plenty of room inside. Besides the obvious reason we came… the beer (and we’re about to get to that. Because holymoly did they deliver), we also stopped because they were dog friendly!!

Not just “stay outside” dog friendly, but inside as well. We were able to sit up at a front bar directly in front of a window to watch everyone going by, have lunch, and have lil miss Lily content at our feet. And when I say dog friendly… I mean it. Essentially ALL of NW Arkansas was. They brought her out a bowl of water, and they even have a section on their menu called “for the puppers” where you can spend a few extra bucks and get plain ol chicken, bacon, or ground beef.

Food wise, it was delicious.
We opted for a chicken sandwich and a burger. Both were wonderful. The service was fantastic, and our waiter was lovely.

Onto the beer!!
Like a typical brewery, you could get a flight with 4 beers on it. But why stop there?
Superior Bathhouse offers a Beer Bath. It’s a lot more pleasant than it sounds.
A flight, with ALL 18 beers they have on tap. At the time of writing this, it’s only $40. That sounds like a lot of money, but that’s 72 ounces of beer, and you get to try them all.

We shared one of these flights. I probably shouldn’t mention that it was only 11am when we did this, because that might make us look like alcoholics. We were in good company though because the place was full! We didn’t anticipate finishing the whole flight since we still had a day of hiking ahead, and we didn’t. Between the two of us we had about half of it… but we did taste every single one.

If you aren’t a beer drinker but still want to try something tasty, they also offered wine and ciders.

As always when traveling, the others in the building are probably also not from the area so it’s easy to make conversation and meet strangers. The woman beside us was on a motorcycle road trip! They sell beer to-go as well so you can take your favorites home with you.

AROUND HOT SPRINGS

Outside of Hot Springs National Park itself, there are plenty of things to do to turn this into a week long trip.

There’s a massive botanical garden called Garvan Woodland Gardens. A nifty mini golf course with a pirate theme called Pirates Cove Adventure Golf. There’s an Alligator farm if you want the weird, and the Oaklawn Racing Casino if you prefer to gamble.

You are sitting right smack in the Ouachita National Forest, so there are plenty of trails, fishing, biking, ATVing just minutes away. Close by are a couple places you can dig for quartz crystals, like Ron Coleman Mining. Adventureworks is a nearby zipline park. Lake Ouachita is gorgeous, and you can even go scuba diving there.

A half hour drive away is the Charlton Recreation Area, for more swimming and fishing and camping. Lake Catherine State Park is also nearby if you haven’t hit your fill of the outdoors yet.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Hot Springs, Arkansas is just one of many towns worth stopping in the north west corner of the state. Whenever I see “what is your least favorite national park” threads or questions come up online… most of the answers are filled with Hot Springs. After spending a couple days here, I can’t even begin to understand how or why someone didn’t enjoy this area. It really has something for everyone.

Adventure and nature? Hike, bike, zipline, bird watch, whatever.
Prefer to have amenities? You’re IN town.
Want to spend an entire day relaxing? Great, head into a bathhouse for a long soak in the thermal water.
Love history? There is plenty of it. From the museums to the bathhouses, there’s plenty to learn.
Here for the scenic drives and views? There are multiple mountains, both with their own unique roads and places to pull over and snap a photo!

I could have spent an entire week here in Hot Springs National Park and still not finished doing all there is to do. It’s going back on our list to come back to in the future, hopefully while the leaves are turning and fall is poking through.

Do you want to see what there is to do in the rest of the state of Arkansas? The Northwest corner is phenomenal!