Hot Springs Arkansas

Before I forget ...

We stopped at the Hot Springs Arkansas National Park in March on our way back from Texas with the new trailer. The park itself is mostly about the old Art Deco spa buildings and their history, with a little nature thrown in for therapeutic reasons (walks were part of the health regimen in the old days). So we weren't exactly sure what to expect.

What we found was a a nice, secluded, wooded, full service N.P. campground on a stream, next to lots of woodland trails and about 1-2 miles by trail from the spas. Senior U.S. Citizens with one of the Golden Age passes pay $12/day.

Grab your bathing suit and flip-flops and walk the trails to one of the very nicely renovated spas ($18/person, as long as you can stand it), sip mango slurpees, and trek back to the trailer.

The other trails are nice too. There's nothing that wild or primitive, like out west, but nice nonetheless.

One of the cheapest, most pleasant and relaxing camping stays ever. We hope to return, in the off season again.

[B_and_D]

Sounds good to me and very reasonably priced.

We have a campground in So. California that we like to go to, Sam's Family Spa outside of Desert Hot Springs. It's really low-key; nice clean mineral pools at varying degrees of heat, and well-maintained grounds. It's one of the few places near Palm Springs that allows children, but it's always been really quiet when we've stayed there, and every year I want to go back there in January when my work slows down for a bit and the kids are out of school. If you stay at the campground the mineral pools are included, 4 people can stay there for about $45 a night. There's lots to go and see around the area, too.

Hey Brulaz, when I started to read this post about Hot Springs National Park being a recommended campground, my first thought was "What campground is even near it?" I thought they were all out near Lake Hamilton.

My wife and I were married in Hot Springs and we visit there every so often, so I thought I was fairly familiar with what made up the national park there. Like you said, the downtown area with bathhouse row, is the main part of it. Others may not know this, but Hot Springs National Park is the oldest park in the national park system......even predates Yellowstone. You'll have to make sure and get one of the new quarters with HSNP on it now that was just released Monday.

http://nationalparkquarters.com/

http://nationalparkquarters.com/hot-...-park-quarter/

Anyhow, we have been to the HSNP so many times, we thought we had about experienced it all. Now thanks to your post, we see a camping trip is in order, which had never even crossed our mind, that there was a National Park campground down the trails.

Thanks so much for the info

Heh, you do "live and learn". We were surprised how wooded and quiet the campground was after driving through the Hot Springs strip and the casino area and all.

There is a road that winds down the valley past the campground, and during the day an occasional trucker will let you know that he's going downhill, but in the evening and night it's fine.

But I do imagine that in the summer it's crowded. Off-season would be best.