Hot Springs National Park

Hot Springs National Park protects thermal springs, eight historic bathhouses and 26 miles of trails on the wooded mountains around downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas. President Jackson set the springs aside on 20 April 1832, which the Park Service says makes it the oldest park among its current units. It became a national park on 4 March 1921. In 2025 it had 2,494,611 recreation visits, 1.3% more than in 2024.

The Park Service calls it "an urban Park": the town is the setting, not a gateway. We read the figures below on 28 October 2026 on the National Park Service's pages, alerts and visitation statistics, the Buckstaff, Quapaw and Mountain Tower operators' own sites, Recreation.gov, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration and NOAA's normals.

Which bathhouses on Bathhouse Row still sell a thermal bath?

Two bathhouses on Bathhouse Row sell a thermal bath, Buckstaff and Quapaw, and the Park Service offers no outdoor soaking anywhere in the park. The operators are private businesses that set their own hours and prices.

Buckstaff Bathhouse, at 509 Central Avenue, takes walk-ins only, first come, first served, with no reservations for baths or massages. On 28 October 2026 its site listed a whirlpool mineral bath at $45. The Traditional Bathing Package, $101, adds a sitz tub, a steam cabinet, hot towel packs, a loofah mitt and a 20-minute Swedish massage. The Deluxe package, $116, adds a paraffin hand treatment, and the site warns that rates are subject to change.

Buckstaff's services are for ages 10 and over. Men bathe on the first floor with male attendants and women on the second with female staff, so there are no couples packages. The full package takes about 1½ hours, and much longer at busy times.

Buckstaff's bathing hours are short. Baths run from 8 to 11:45 a.m. and from 1:15 to 3 p.m., Monday to Saturday, and only in the morning on Sunday; arrive by 11:30 a.m. or 2:45 p.m. The bathhouse closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Easter Sunday. On other federal holidays admissions stop at 10:30 a.m.

Quapaw Bathhouse, at 413 Central Avenue under a tiled dome, lists public thermal pools at $30 on its own site, first come, first served, for ages 14 and over. The same site gives its hours as Wednesday to Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed on Tuesday, and says private baths and spa treatments need a reservation.

The Park Service still lists a steam cave there, which the operator's page calls closed until further notice. We could read Quapaw's pages only through a summarising tool, so check the price at the door.

What changes at Buckstaff Bathhouse on 1 January 2027?

Buckstaff Bathhouse gets a new operator and longer hours from 1 January 2027. On 22 September 2026 the Park Service announced a new 10-year concession contract for the building and named Historic Baths, LLC as the operator.

Under the new contract, the Park Service says, bathing will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and visitors will be able to book in advance while walk-ins continue. The Park Service does not expect any break in service during the handover. Buckstaff opened in 1912 and is, in the Park Service's words, the only facility on the Row that has never fully closed.

Buckstaff's own pages, read on 28 October 2026, still said walk-ins only and mentioned no change of operator. Prices from 1 January 2027 have not been announced, so the figures above hold for the rest of 2026 only.

Where can you fill a jug with the 143°F spring water?

The thermal water leaves the ground at 143°F and is free at the park's jug fountains. The Park Service names two on Reserve Street, in front of the Libbey Memorial Physical Medicine Center and in front of its Administration Building. A third, at Hill Wheatley Plaza on Central Avenue, stands just outside the park boundary.

Drinking the water is "perfectly normal, even encouraged", the Park Service says, and nobody may sell it. Other fountains stand on Bathhouse Row and Reserve Street, among them the Noble Fountain, the Shell Fountain and the Dripping Spring between the Hale and the Maurice. Two cold springs, Happy Hollow on North Mountain and Whittington on West Mountain, are treated with ozone filtration under state health rules.

Legionella bacteria have been identified in some of the park's water samples. The Park Service says the risk comes from breathing the water in, particularly for people with weak immune systems, and not from drinking or bathing. Hot water can also release chemicals from some containers, so the park advises food-grade bottles made for hot liquids.

The water can be touched at the Display Spring behind the Maurice and at the Hot Water Cascade on Arlington Lawn. The Park Service calls the cascade the largest visible spring in the park. The water fell as rain more than 4,000 years ago, on the Zigzag Mountains that the park calls the recharge zone.

What does a day at Hot Springs National Park cost if the gate is free?

Hot Springs National Park charges no entrance fee, and its brochure, junior ranger programme and ranger-led tours cost nothing either. The park is not on the 2026 list of eleven parks with a $100 surcharge for non-residents, so a visitor from abroad pays the same as an American: nothing.

The money goes to the businesses. Two adults from abroad who take Buckstaff's Traditional package pay $202 before a tip, or $60 for Quapaw's pools. The Mountain Tower adds $26 for two adults. Parking downtown is metered on the street or in the Exchange Street Parking Garage at 128 Exchange Street; we could not read the city's rates.

With no gate there is no cash-or-card question at the park itself, and we did not read the payment rules of each business. The Fordyce sells only the Access, 4th Grade, military and Gold Star family passes. The $250 non-resident America the Beautiful pass is not sold here and buys nothing in this park. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors lists the parks where it pays off.

When is the Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center open?

The Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center, at 369 Central Avenue, is free and self-guided, but two Park Service pages give different opening days. The building's own page, last updated in July 2022, says it opens every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

An alert from March 2025 closed the Fordyce on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and set its hours at 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday to Monday, "until further notice". The alert's end date, 14 May 2025, has passed, yet on 28 October 2026 it was still published as active. The park's hours page does not list the Fordyce, so call 501-620-6715 before a midweek visit.

Ranger programmes are free and need no booking, but run subject to staff and weather. In winter, November to March, the Park Service lists Fordyce tours daily at 10:30 a.m. and on Saturday at 1 p.m., with an outdoor walk daily at 2 p.m. Summer, June to August, adds more tours and walks. The schedule page lists nothing for September and October.

Dogs are welcome on all 26 miles of trails but not inside federal buildings such as the Fordyce. The free NPS App carries two self-guided tours, including a one-mile loop along Bathhouse Row to Happy Hollow Spring and back by the Grand Promenade.

What else stands on Bathhouse Row besides the two working baths?

Bathhouse Row's eight bathhouses went up between 1892 and 1923, and since 1987 the row and the Grand Promenade behind it have been a National Historic Landmark District. One Park Service page counts nine historic bathhouses; its page for the Row names eight.

The buildings run south to north as listed, according to the Park Service. The Maurice's $31.6 million rehabilitation, paid for by the Great American Outdoors Act, broke ground on 19 August 2025, and no reopening date has been printed. The Hale is the oldest surviving bathhouse, and the Park Service calls the Superior the only brewery in a national park.

What does the ride up Hot Springs Mountain Tower cost?

Hot Springs Mountain Tower is run by a concessioner and charges $13 for adults aged 12 to 54. Visitors of 55 and over pay $12 and children aged 5 to 11 pay $6.50. Children of 4 and under go free, and holders of a Golden or park pass pay $11. Parking at the tower is free.

The tower's own site prints its hours as 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with no days, season or date, and sells its last tickets 30 minutes before closing. The Park Service says the tower's hours change seasonally, so the printed hours may not hold all year.

The tower is 216 feet tall and opened in June 1983. A lift takes visitors to two decks 1,256 feet above sea level: a lower one, enclosed and air-conditioned with exhibits, and an open-air one above it. The Park Service says visitors may overlook 140 square miles.

Hot Springs Mountain Drive, built as a carriage road in the 1880s, climbs to the tower and the Pagoda overlook. Walkers can take the Peak Trail from the Grand Promenade instead, 0.6 mile at a typical grade of 12.6%.

Which Hot Springs trails start behind Bathhouse Row?

Hot Springs' trails start a few steps behind Bathhouse Row, on Hot Springs and North Mountains, reached from behind the Fordyce. West Mountain's trails begin from Whittington Park, and the Sunset Trail ties the areas together. The lengths below are the Park Service's, one way.

Paper trail maps are at the Fordyce, and the NPS App has digital ones. Combined with other trails, the Sunset Trail makes what the Park Service calls a strenuous loop of 15 to 17 miles. Spur trails off it lead onto private land. Bikes may use any paved road but not the Grand Promenade or the pavement in front of Bathhouse Row.

How hard is it to get a site at Gulpha Gorge Campground?

Gulpha Gorge Campground, at 305 Gorge Road, is the park's only campground, and it is nearly full in November. On 28 October 2026, Recreation.gov showed 1,083 of November's 1,200 site-nights as reserved, about 90%.

The Park Service lists 40 sites, every one booked in advance on Recreation.gov at $34 a night, up to six months ahead. Recreation.gov's own description says 44, but its availability lists 40. Every site has 30- and 50-amp electricity, water and sewer, none is pull-through, and each takes up to eight people and two vehicles. The campground is open all year, and a cancellation more than 72 hours ahead costs $10.

The only other beds inside the park are at Hotel Hale on Bathhouse Row; everything else is in the town around it. On 28 October 2026 the park's alerts still listed a burn ban enacted on 15 August, with only gas and charcoal grills allowed in the campground and picnic areas. The alert carried no end date.

Sales tax in the town of Hot Springs is 9.5%: Arkansas's 6.5%, plus 1.5% for the city and 1.5% for Garland County, from the state's October to December 2026 table. We could not confirm whether the city adds a lodging tax on rooms, or how much. Our guide to sales tax in the USA explains why prices are shown before tax.

When does the heat cancel ranger walks in Hot Springs?

Hot Springs' outdoor ranger programmes are cancelled whenever the heat index reaches 100, and summer gets close. July's average high is 93°F, and an average year has 77 days at 90°F or above.

The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Hot Springs 1 NNE station, about half a kilometre from the Fordyce. About 58 inches of rain fall in a year, May is the wettest month, and snow averages 1.1 inches. Visits never stop: June was the busiest month in 2025, with 351,571, and even January, the quietest, had 106,185.

How far is Hot Springs National Park from Little Rock?

Hot Springs National Park is 54 miles and about an hour from Little Rock, by the Park Service's figure. The route follows I-30 west and US 70 west into town. From Little Rock's airport, now named Clinton National, the park's page gives approximately 60 miles.

Hot Springs Memorial Field, the town's own airport, has Southern Airways Express flights listed to Dallas/Fort Worth and Memphis. Amtrak's Texas Eagle stops in Little Rock, not in Hot Springs. The park is on Central Time, and clocks went back an hour on 1 November 2026. It is one of the National Park Service sites in our guide to Arkansas.