Arkansas Adventures: Long Weekend in Hot Springs National Park

Over Fourth of July weekend, we drove down to Hot Springs, Arkansas to take advantage of cheap camping and a National Park. Hot Springs is certainly not what would normally come to mind when you think of National Parks. It’s considered an “urban park,” as it runs right through downtown. We were pleased to find a good combination of nature and city alike, and better yet, it was no entrance fee!

Day 1: Campsite

We left for the 5 hour drive late on a Friday afternoon, with only enough time to set up our campsite and drive around before it got too dark. We stayed at Crystal Springs campground in Royal, Arkansas. This was about a 25 minute drive from Hot Springs. Not bad, but we do wish we would have booked our site earlier and been able to stay at Gulpha Gorge Campground right inside the park. What the campsite lacked in convenience to the park, it made up for in amenities.

Day 2: Explore National Park

Our first stop was a walk down the historic Bathhouse Row. There are a couple bathhouses that still operate as spas (Buckstaff Baths & Quapaw Bathhouse), but the other buildings have turned into gift shops and visitor centers. We enjoyed browsing the quaint shops with unique homemade gifts . Behind the bathhouses, we found a small "display spring" and a couple streams that allowed us to feel the hot water (over 100 degrees!). According to nationalparks.org, Hot Spring is home to 47 hot springs, but we had yet to discover the rest.

There are numerous hiking trails, varying in length. We opted for a bunch of smaller trails and didn't have many set plans for this trip. Our favorite hike was the 1-2 mile Goat Rock Trail. This lead to a really impressive overlook of the Ouachita Mountains. We can only imagine how pretty it would be in the fall when the leaves change!

After a couple hours of hiking, we finished off our day with beer and cider at Superior Bathhouse Brewery. We love to include visiting a new brewery and/or winery on our vacation itinerary - this was a unique experience because it was the first brewery located within a National Park! Fun fact: they even brew their beer on-site with the thermal water from the hot springs. The small downtown building was hopping with customers and we can see why - it great & convenient place to enjoy a drink and appetizer after a long day of walking. Afterwards, we ate at Bubba Brews on Lake Hamilton.

Day 3: Camping & Fourth of July

For a majority of the day, we relaxed with typical camping activities - picnic meals, hanging out in tubes on the lake, and s'mores. That night, we drove back to town and stopped by The Winery of Hot Springs (we visited the location outside of downtown). It was a small shop with only a tasting counter & gift shop (no seating area), but they did offer free wine tastings and we couldn't pass that up. We ended up buying a bottle of Lake Hamilton Sunset, which tasted just like homemade strawberry jam.

Afterwards, we went further in town to watch a quick firework show over Lake Hamilton from a sidewalk the across the street. It surely didn't beat watching the fireworks on the beach over Lake Michigan, but it's always a blast to celebrate from somewhere new.

We left to go back to Missouri early the next day, and enjoyed our short getaway camping and crossing off another National Park on our list. While I'm sure there was a lot we missed out on and longer trails we wish we had time to enjoy, we still got a good taste of this unique park.