Arkansas

By Travelog Editorial Team · Updated August 8, 2026

Arkansas is live on Travelog with one city, Hot Springs, home to Hot Springs National Park. Congress protected this land as a federal reservation in 1832, 40 years before Yellowstone became the first official national park in 1872, making Hot Springs the oldest federally protected land in the National Park System, even though it didn't gain the 'national park' title itself until 1921. Entrance is free; Bathhouse Row's Buckstaff and Quapaw bathhouses charge separate fees for traditional thermal bathing.

Hot Springs holds a genuinely nuanced historical distinction, oldest protected land but not the first national park, worth understanding accurately before visiting, covered in full below.