Hot Springs is the only city in America with a national park running down its main street. The springs are the reason: forty-seven of them rise at the foot of Hot Springs Mountain, carrying rainwater that fell thousands of years ago and heated deep underground. Congress set the area aside for federal protection in 1832, decades before Yellowstone, and the elegant bathhouses along Central Avenue, known as Bathhouse Row, were built in the early twentieth century when visitors came from across the country to soak away their ailments.
You can still fill a bottle for free from public jug fountains around town, and the water is hot, clean and slightly mineral. The town also has a long reputation for gambling, gangsters and horse racing. Oaklawn Park, a short ride north, remains a major track, and Hot Springs was a pit stop for a number of famous mobsters in the 1930s. Bill Clinton grew up here, and the town has a certain faded grandeur that makes it worth a slow walk.
For a rider, the start of Highway 7 is a major draw. The road leaves downtown and climbs into the Ouachita Mountains, one of the few ranges in America that run east-west, with long ridges covered in shortleaf pine and oak. Within minutes you are on bends that tighten and ease around hollows, passing quiet lakes and the occasional roadside produce stand. Lake Hamilton and Lake Ouachita spread out to the south and west, and the road goes through Ouachita National Forest in places where there is little but trees on both sides.
Practical life is easy here. The town has fuel stations, plenty of diners and a good supply of motels, and on a weekend you may need to book ahead, especially during the racing season in spring and during the autumn colors. Mornings are cooler and calmer. Summer afternoons are hot and heavy, with thunderstorms that can drop a lot of water quickly.
If you have time before leaving, walk up the hillside behind Bathhouse Row. The paths wind through old forest and finish at an observation tower with a broad view over the valley and the Ouachitas beyond.