• Cover of Hot Springs National Park: History, Highlights, and One- to Three-Day Adventures, by Brian D. Russ, in Brian Russ's Guide to National Parks. A vintage poster-style illustration shows the steaming Hot Water Cascade spilling down mossy tufa ledges into a turquoise pool, framed by green forest under a teal sky.
  • Sample page from the Hot Springs National Park guide, wildlife chapter: a photograph of a white-tailed deer browsing in the park, followed by the full entry for the eastern gray squirrel, with how to recognize it and where and when to see it.
  • Sample page from the Hot Springs National Park guide, a day itinerary with times, distances, and a photograph: Steam on the hillside.
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Brian Russ Guides

Hot Springs National Park: History, Highlights, and One- to Three-Day Adventures

Hot Springs National Park: History, Highlights, and One- to Three-Day Adventures

$2.99 USD
$2.99 USD
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In the heart of an Arkansas city, 143-degree water flows out of Hot Springs Mountain beside a row of grand old bathhouses. This guide helps you plan one, two, or three days in America's spa park: where to see and drink the springs, how to take a traditional bath, and which trails and overlooks to fit in.

What's inside

  • Nine ready-made itineraries: one, two, and three days, each at easy, moderate, and strenuous effort, from the Fordyce Bathhouse, the Hot Water Cascade, and the Buckstaff's traditional bath to the Peak Trail, the Mountain Tower, Goat Rock, West Mountain, Ricks Pond, and the Sunset Trail to Balanced Rock, each with a weather backup
  • The park's history, from the novaculite quarries of the first people and the reservation of 1832 to the Great American Spa, the bath attendants, and the revival of Bathhouse Row
  • Sightseeing highlights: the thermal springs and fountains, a building-by-building guide to Bathhouse Row, the Fordyce museum, the Buckstaff and Quapaw baths, the Grand Promenade, Hot Springs Mountain, and West Mountain
  • A wildlife chapter profiling 14 commonly seen animals, from white-tailed deer and chipmunks to pileated woodpeckers, prairie lizards, and river cooters, each with a photograph and notes on where and when to look
  • Trip planning for heat and storms, parking, the campground, lodging, food, the drinking water, safety, pets, and accessibility
  • 36 photographs and 4 orientation maps

What you'll receive

  • EPUB ebook (Hot_Springs_National_Park_Brian_D_Russ.epub, about 15 MB) for Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and most e-reader apps. Kindle readers can send it to their library with Amazon's Send to Kindle.
  • PDF (Hot_Springs_National_Park_Brian_D_Russ.pdf, 95 pages including the cover, about 31 MB) for any device, and for printing pages. It opens on the illustrated cover.

Your download link arrives by email right after purchase.

Edition

First illustrated edition, October 2026, with research completed October 2026. Bathhouse hours and services change, so check the park's current alerts and the bathhouses' websites before you travel.

Bring a bottle for the thermal water.

This is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service.
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