I wasn’t excited for my first visit but I’ll go back anytime. What a weird mishmash of history, capitalism and nature.

1. View of the Ouachita Mountains from Goat Rock Overlook, a short hike from the Hot Springs Mountain Drive
2. The gymnasium on the upper floor of the Fordyce Bathhouse. It’s the park’s Visitor Center but it’s worth doing the self-guided & free building tour while you’re there.
3. One of two barred owls we startled (and were startled by) on a trail. They were unhappy to see us, shrieking and glaring and swooping, so we got some distance but I snapped a photo first.
4. A tarantula (!) near the Grand Promenade.
5. A tiger swallowtail in some (invasive ☹️) mimosa blooms.
6. Wall detail in one of the buildings on Bathhouse Row. We spent an hour or two soaking in the public pools at Quapaw and then got the beer flight at Superior.
7. Front facade of Buckstaff Baths, which was not open for bathing that day but offers the more intense historical bath treatment, which I’d like to try someday even though it kinda scares me! 8 & 9. The Tufa Terraces above the Display Spring on the Grand Promenade. Here and at the Hot Water Cascade on Arlington Lawn are the only places (I think?) you can see the hot springs emerge from the ground in a relatively natural state. We also filled our water jugs at Happy Hollow Spring and chatted with some locals who use it as their household drinking water.
8. Ohio Club, the oldest drinking establishment in Arkansas, with a 360 sq. ft. mahogany bar, really good cocktails and a busker who played some Bobbie Gentry so he knows what’s up. They rent out the upstairs for the night. We stayed nearby at the Cove Tourist Court, which is a renovated old motor lodge, a National Registry historic site, and one of the best Airbnbs I’ve ever stayed in.