Hot Springs, Arkansas

In order to log national park #38, we made a long weekend visit to Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. This is a very unusual park in that the focus is on the history/preservation of Bathhouse Row instead of the preservation of the natural land environment.

We flew into Dallas on Thursday morning which gave Jim time to meet with one of his distributors before hitting the road in a rental car to Hot Springs, Arkansas. In the early evening, we arrived at our beautiful boutique hotel, The Lookout Point situated on Lake Hamilton. 

Our first full day in Hot Springs began with a visit to the Garvan Woodland Gardens owned and operated by the University of Arkansas. It is a beautiful wooded, park-like garden located along Lake Hamilton. It is known for having thousands of tulips that bloom every spring. We tried to time our visit to Arkansas to coincide with the bloom, but due to an early spring, we missed the height of the tulip season by a few weeks. Nonetheless, it is a wonderfully, scenic spot to enjoy any time of year.

Garvan Woodland Gardens

There were lots of azaleas in bloom along the pathways.

Views of Lake Hamilton from the garden.

One small section of tulips was still in bloom.

Garvan Gardens houses the beautiful Anthony Chapel with stunning glass and wood architecture.

After our morning at the garden, we made it to the grounds of the national park. We started our time at Hot Springs NP by checking out the visitor center and museum located in the Fordyce Bathhouse.

This tub was used for hydrotherapy treatments and has a lift that could lower/lift patients into and out of the hot water. The hot water came directly from the thermal springs located behind Bathhouse Row.



Many of the bathhouses had gymnasiums that were used by patients in addition to hydrotherapy.



The Men's Bath Hall in Fordyce Bathhouse.







This is an example of a needle bath shower designed to administer intensive hydrotherapy.




A steam cabinet









A sitz bath and steam cabinet



The Women's Recovery Room

The Buckstaff Bathhouse is one of two bathhouses still operating today.

The Quapaw Bathhouse is the 2nd bathhouse still operating today. Jim and I enjoyed some time soaking in the thermal pools in this bathhouse.

The Ozark Bathhouse

On our second and last day at Hot Springs National Park, we started the morning with a hike up to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower that sits above Bathhouse Row and the city of Hot Springs. From the top of the tower, we had a view of the city and surrounding Ouachita Mountains.

The hike back down the mountain put us on the Grand Promenade - a historic brick paved path completed in the 1930s that parallels Bathhouse Row and passes by several naturally occurring thermal springs.

After our morning walk, we checked out the lobby of the historic Arlington Hotel which sits at the north end of Bathhouse Row. 

The Arlington Hotel

Next, we enjoyed lunch at the Superior Brewery which is located in one of the historic bathhouses on the row. It is the only brewery in the world to use thermal springs water for brewing.

In the afternoon, Jim enjoyed the Gangster Museum while I did some shopping at the boutique stores across the street from the bathhouses. Then we headed back to our hotel where we took advantage of the grounds by taking a paddle boat out onto Lake Hamilton.

A pretty mural on the side of one of the boutiques.

The view of Lake Hamilton from our hotel.

The next morning, we drove back to Dallas to return the rental car and fly home to Fresno. Although Hot Springs National Park is a very different national park, we really enjoyed our weekend here exploring!