I Saw a List Calling Hot Springs the Worst National Park, So I Went to Prove It Wrong

If you search online for the best (or worst) national parks, you'll find lots of opinion pieces ranking the U.S.A. National Parks from best to worst. Several of them list Hot Springs National Park as one of the worst or, at the very least, among the bottom three. I wanted to debunk this sentiment, so we took a road trip to see what could possibly make this national park so bad. Hot Springs is indeed quite different from other National Park sites I've been to, but its uniqueness, with a historic downtown and tons of local shops, actually made it stand out to me as one of the best national parks in the country. Unlike many others, it has a very high level of community involvement, which allows locals to benefit directly from national park tourism.

The Worst National Parks in the U.S.

I crave intrepid experiences, especially those hidden among the obvious. Traipsing off to places others like to label as the worst, least visited, most dangerous, and even the most boring has an intoxicating appeal for someone like me. So I did the unthinkable. I tapped w-o-r-s-t national parks into my browser.

With equal parts dread and delight, a full page of matching search results for this heinous request materialized. Dread, for the writers who thought it’d be a great idea to dog on “America’s best idea,” and delight for so many harsh opinions I could aim to dispel.

What I didn’t expect was that most of them listed the same three national parks as the worst: Gateway National Park, Indiana Dunes National Park, and Hot Springs National Park. Disappointingly unoriginal to say the least. The positive? All of them were within driving distance of me, and one of them I had never been to. This called for a road trip!

 A Road Trip to Hot Springs National Park

On a rainy weekend just a few weeks shy of summer, my family and I loaded up for a journey south. Hailing from Iowa, it was a somewhat grueling 10-hour road trip to land ourselves in the worst national park in the USA: Hot Springs National Park. 

Somewhere in the lower skirts of Missouri, the lands and the people merged from the Midwest to the south. Although the exact place where the regions divide is up for debate, it felt good to be in the south after a long, cold winter up north. The trees glowed the fluorescent green that can only be attributed to fresh spring growth, and the grass was blissfully knee-high, months ahead of our inch-high grass in Iowa.

The air was delicious and humid; the people warm and sweet, greeting us like long-lost cousins they had never met. It was immediately clear that this road trip to Hot Springs National Park was an excellent idea.

Where to Stay in Hot Springs National Park

After such a long drive and a warm welcome, it felt essential to give the best of ourselves to Hot Springs National Park. So we checked into our Airbnb glamping tent, The Wren. It’s about seven miles west of Bathhouse Row within the national park. 

We wanted to stay away from the tourist district to have a more immersive experience, staying where the locals live and with total nature immersion while being integrated into our national parks. It was the ultimate way to unwind and connect with our surroundings. 

What to Do in Hot Springs National Park

The next morning, we rolled down to Hot Spring National Park, eager to check out the trails, viewpoints, and most of all Bathhouse Row. It was immediately clear to me why so many people don’t love this national park. Simply because it’s different, its main attraction isn’t an epic mountain, glacial lake, or even a monumental, woodland trail. It’s a historic downtown.

Bathhouse Row is a several-block stretch of heritage buildings dating back to 1892, featuring historic spas that once catered to the wealthy and elite. Today, most of those buildings retain their historical quality and house a vast array of independent and often quirky, small businesses. One could easily spend a whole weekend here shopping and brewery-hunting, stopping to fill water bottles at a natural spring fountain and taking small jaunts into the wilderness via the city promenade. 

Is Hot Springs National Park the Worst National Park?

While Hot Springs National Park is a substantial diversion from most beloved national parks, it is in no way the worst. I don’t believe any of the national parks deserve to be labeled in such a way. But, with a new perspective, a person like me might even call Hot Spring National Park the best one. 

Why? It offers more than breathtaking natural experiences. It has a superior connection to the local culture and community, both past and present. It’s more than a national site; it’s also a hyper-localized national park with a direct, positive impact on the people who choose and open small businesses here.