Hot Springs National Park

The reason the place is a park. Forty-seven springs feed it, emerging at about 143 degrees F and flowing near 700,000 gallons a day per NPS. The water fell as rain roughly 4,400 years ago, sank deep underground, and rose back along the Hot Springs Mountain fault. Two springs are left open to view behind the Maurice Bathhouse; the rest are capped and piped to the bathhouses. People came to this valley for the water for thousands of years before any of that was measured.

The 1,040-foot hill the hot water rises through. The fault and the folded Paleozoic rock that route the springs run beneath it, which makes the mountain the geologic answer to why the water surfaces here and nowhere else nearby. Hot Springs Mountain Trail loops the wooded summit, and the privately operated observation tower stands on top (separate fee, not the NPS). About a 10-minute drive up Hot Springs Mountain Drive from Bathhouse Row.

A wooded creek drainage on the park's east side, away from downtown, and the contrast is the point: cold creek and forest a few minutes' drive from the thermal-water sidewalk. The park's only campground sits along the creek, and the Goat Rock and Gulpha Gorge trailheads leave from here. The place to take kids who need to get their feet in cold water after a morning on the pavement.

A 216-foot steel observation tower on the 1,040-foot summit of Hot Springs Mountain. It is a private concession, not the NPS, though it stands on park land, and it charges its own fee. The enclosed deck gives a view over the Ouachita Mountains, and the elevator makes it the family-friendly way to the long view without a climb. About a 10-minute drive up Hot Springs Mountain Drive from Bathhouse Row.

The only campground inside the park: about 40 sites along Gulpha Creek with full hookups for water, sewer, and electric, which is unusual for an NPS campground. There is no tent-only loop and no showers on site. About 2 miles from Bathhouse Row by road, reservable on recreation.gov. The in-park base for a family that wants forest and creek instead of a downtown hotel.

The Hale is the oldest of the eight Bathhouse Row buildings and now runs as a small hotel; several rooms have in-room thermal-water soaking tubs fed from the springs. Sleeping inside a 19th-century federal bathhouse on the park's main row is the distinguishing fact. It is a small, quiet, adult-leaning property rather than a pool-and-breakfast hotel, and it books out early. Booked directly through the operator.

The Promenade is a half-mile brick walkway one level up the hill behind the bathhouses, built over the spring outflows. It looks down over the backs of the eight buildings and is the rare overlook that is paved, level, and steps from the car. The thermal-water Dripping Spring and several jug fountains sit along its lower edge, so the view and the fill-your-bottle stop are the same walk.

The easiest walk in the park: a flat, paved brick path built over the spring outflows behind Bathhouse Row, shaded and lined with thermal-water fountains and the open Dripping Spring. The first walk to do with kids before anyone is tired, and stroller-passable on the main run. It connects to the steeper mountain trails at its north and south ends for families who want to keep going.

A wooded climb to the Goat Rock novaculite outcrop and an open view over the Gulpha Gorge drainage. About 1.1 miles one way on dirt, with the grade gentle enough for kids who can handle a steady uphill, per NPS. The payoff, rock to scramble and a real view, makes it the best earn-the-overlook hike at a family's scale. Leashed pets allowed.

A working brewery inside a former federal bathhouse on Bathhouse Row, and the one brewery in the United States that brews with thermal spring water. The building reuse is the draw and the menu is family-friendly pub fare, with soups, salads, and kids' options. The fact that they brew with the hot-spring water is a genuine kid-interest hook even for the soda-and-fries crowd.

The Fordyce, built 1915, is the park's free visitor center: three floors of restored treatment rooms with the original hydrotherapy equipment in place, part vintage medical, part machine shop. The Junior Ranger book is here. This is the indoor, all-weather, no-fee anchor for a family day and the place to start before the bathhouses and the trails.

The Quapaw reopened as a working spa in 2008 with thermal soaking pools of different temperatures under its domed roof. It is a warm public soak rather than the attendant-led private bath at the Buckstaff, but its minimum age is 14 (youth 14 to 18 must be with an adult), so it is not the option for younger kids in the water. Reservations online.