• water flowing over rocks into basin

    Hot Springs

    National Park Arkansas

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  • Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center Closed

    The Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center is closed until Fall 2013 for a major maintenance project. A temporary park Visitor Center, along with the park store, are located in the Lamar Bathhouse at the south end of Bathhouse Row. Call for more information.

Goat Rock Trail

photo of Goat Rock Trail in April, with wild phlox blooming on right side and lots of green along trail

NPS photo

From the overlook at North Mountain, take the short hike below the overlook and stay right, noting the novaculite stone bars placed to prevent erosion.

Below the third switchback, the lower side of the trail opens to flowery glades that offer vistas of Indian Mountain and east Hot Springs. The trail becomes uneven and rocky here. After several hundred feet you will pass beneath huge novaculite boulders. Goat Rock Overlook is forty feet above you. A sign indicates the stairway to the overlook. Stone steps rise 240 nonvertical feet to the summit, which showcases a spectacular view of Indian Mountain.

Return down the steps to continue on Goat Rock Trail. The trail descends to the Gulpha Gorge Trail, which descends in a serpentine path to the Gulpha Gorge Campground. From the junction with the Gulpha Gorge Trail, you can also take the right path up the mountain to rejoin the Hot Springs Mountain Trail.

Choose Another Trail

 
aerial infrared map with Goat Rock trail drawn in red
 
Choose Another Trail

Did You Know?

Pres. Roosevelt is in an open touring car on Fountain St. in front of the Arlington Hotel. A crowd surrounds the car.

On June 10, 1936, President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Hot Springs National Park and toured the Fordyce Bathhouse as part of the Arkansas centennial celebration. FDR used the baths at Warm Springs, Georgia, on a regular basis to relieve his polio. He never bathed in Hot Springs.