We arrived at Hot Spring National Park on October 5 and the next day we learned more about this area by taking a 2.5 hour tour. This park is small (8 square miles) and includes part of the town, as seen in the narrow valley between the two hills. 
We quickly observed that Hot Springs National Park doesn’t fit the traditional mold of a National Park. It isn’t large, wild, nor majestic. And yet, this small space is wonder-filled and the natural hot water springs that flow in this area were long thought to have restorative therapeutic health benefits.
Hot Springs National Park has forty-seven hot springs on the closest hill seen in the photo, that produce well over a half million gallons of water per day at an average temperature of 143° F. The water is non-sulfuric so the area doesn’t smell bad, and the water tastes great! Because Hot Springs was said to be a place of healing, in 1884 the first national army-navy hospital was built right here. Both hot and cold water flow into several fountains for public use, so it is the only National Park where people can take all the resources they want for free.
It is estimated that the water that feeds the hot springs started as raindrops and take 4,000 years to percolate deep into the earth where the water is heated, and then it only takes one year for that same water to make its way back to the surface.
But one can’t come here and just observe the park – you have to get your feet wet!
After the tour, we signed up to take a deluxe bath in one of the two remaining bath houses at the bottom of the hill. Wow! It was great! Men and women are on two separate floors of the building, and for two hours we were pampered with a hot whirlpool bath, a steam bath, hot steamed towels, and a rest in a cooling room, followed by a Swedish massage. 
- Sue says, “The whole experience was fantastic! I especially enjoyed the hot towel wrap and massage.”
- Ted says: “It was a slice of heaven, and all the cares of life melted away.”
The following day, we relaxed all morning, reading and working on the details for our next national park visit to Big Bend National Park in Texas. In the afternoon, we bicycled around the town of Hot Springs and also enjoyed an additional 
six miles of biking the Hot Springs Creek Greenway trail.
After our bike ride, we went to the Superior Bathhouse Brewery, located in the old building that used to be the Superior Bath House. Ted enjoyed tasting the only beer in the world made from thermal water!
Ted and Sue
PS: More about the park: Hot Springs became the 15th national park 90 years ago, but locals consider it to be the first, and here’s why: President Jefferson sent out the exploration party, Hunter and Dunbar, to this area about the same time he sent out Lewis and Clark. They came back stating how great these Hot Springs were and that they should be protected. In 1832, President Jackson designated this as the first federally protected ‘reservation’ of land for recreational use. One of the lakes around here is deemed to be the cleanest lake water in the U.S. The area was made a National Park on March 4, 1921, and is the smallest National Park in the system. Twenty-four hundred parks of this size could fit into our largest park, Wrangell-St. Elias (Alaska). The Hot Springs ‘Oak Lawn Racetrack’ hosts the Arkansas derby, which is the final qualification race for the Triple Crown races. The house that President Bill Clinton lived in during his school-age years is in Hot Springs.