Dripping Spring

What to expect

The Dripping Spring is a small piece of Bathhouse Row history rather than a place to bathe. It sits in the Maurice Historic Spring Area, the strip of ground between the Hale and Maurice bathhouses on Central Avenue in downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas. Here the thermal water seeps out of natural tufa rock, the pale, porous stone that mineral water leaves behind, framed by stonework the park finished in 1903. The neighbouring Tunnel Springs share the same setting.

This is not a soak. NPS states there are no outdoor soaking opportunities in Hot Springs National Park, and the park’s compendium bans bathing in any thermal water feature outside the bathhouses. The name tells you the scale: water drips and trickles from rock rather than filling a pool.

Its story is about drinking. From the time Hot Springs Reservation was set aside in 1832, people treated the thermal springs as a safe source of drinking water and drank from whatever spring they came across. As bathhouses were built over the springs, open drinking spots disappeared, and the park started protecting dedicated fountains. The Maurice area was one of those early efforts, and the Maurice Spring was the park’s first display spring. NPS says historic photos show the Dripping Spring as a popular place to fill jugs.

NPS still lists “the Dripping Spring between the Hale and Maurice Bathhouses” among its thermal spring fountains, and lists the Maurice Historic Spring Area as one of the spots where visitors may touch the thermal water. What it does not do is mark the Dripping Spring as suitable for filling jugs. That label goes to three other fountains (see below).

A few steps away, directly behind the Maurice Bathhouse, the Display Spring is the more visual stop: water breaks out of the hillside into a shallow, tree-shaded pool lined with moss and blue-green algae. NPS uses it to explain how rain soaks into the ridges, is heated deep underground and rises along fault lines more than 4,000 years later.

Getting there

The spring is on Bathhouse Row, the east side of Central Avenue (AR 7), in the middle of the row between Hotel Hale at 341 Central Avenue and the Maurice Bathhouse. The Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center at 369 Central Avenue is next door to the Maurice, so the visitor center is the easy landmark.

• From Little Rock: NPS gives the route as I-30 west to Exit 111, US 70 west until it becomes US 70 Business (East Grand Avenue), right on Spring Street (which becomes Reserve Street), then right on Central Avenue. About 54 miles, an hour’s drive.
• From Texarkana: I-30 to Exit 78, then AR 7 north, which becomes Central Avenue in town.

Downtown street parking along main streets is metered, and the city charges in its garages; the garage at 128 Exchange Street is a block west of the visitor center. Bathhouse Row’s sidewalk is wide and paved.

When to go

The spring area is outside and open year-round. Bathhouse Row is busiest on weekends, holidays and in summer. Early morning on a weekday is the calmest.

At night, the park closes the Bathhouse Row porches and lawns and the sidewalks (except for people walking through) from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Rules and etiquette

• No bathing. The compendium bans bathing in any of the park’s thermal water features except at the bathhouses.
• Do not remove anything from the thermal features. The tufa is fragile and protected.
• No hoses on any thermal water feature.
• Filling water: For jugs, go to a fountain NPS marks for it. The park gives water away free and bans private resale.
• Pets on a leash outdoors only; they are not allowed in park buildings, including the visitor center.

Where to soak instead

The bathhouses around you are the only places in the park to get into the water. Buckstaff Bathhouse, open since 1912, runs the traditional bath sequence, and Quapaw Baths and Spa has shared thermal pools for swimsuit soaking. Hotel Hale, the building right beside the Dripping Spring, pipes thermal water into soaking tubs in its suites, and the Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa has a thermal bathhouse at the north end of the row.

Where to fill jugs

NPS marks three thermal fountains as suitable for filling jugs: the Hill Wheatley Plaza jug fountain at 629 Central Avenue, the fountain in front of the park Administration Building at 101 Reserve Street, and the one in front of the Libbey Memorial Physical Medicine Center at 500 Reserve Street. The water averages 143°F62°C at the tap and is free.

Where to stay nearby

Hotel Hale is next door. The Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa is at the north end of Bathhouse Row across Fountain Street. For camping, the park’s Gulpha Gorge Campground at 305 Gorge Road, on the east side of town off US 70B, has 40 full-hookup sites at $34 a night, reservable only on Recreation.gov, with a limit of 14 consecutive days and 30 days a year.

Safety notes

• Hot water: The park’s springs average about 143°F62°C where they emerge. Test before touching and keep small hands away from any flowing seep.
• Slick stone: Wet tufa and old stonework are slippery and easy to damage. Stay on the walkway.
• Breathing the water: NPS reports Legionella bacteria in some thermal water samples. Its concern is inhaling droplets, especially for people with weak immune systems, not drinking or touching.
• Burn ban: Since August 15, 2026 a park-wide burn ban allows only gas and charcoal grills in the campground and picnic areas.

Nearby stops worth adding

The Hot Water Cascade on Arlington Lawn, at the north end of the row, is the largest visible spring in the park and another place NPS lets you touch the water. The Shell Fountain on the Stevens Balustrade, the grand staircase between the Fordyce and Maurice bathhouses, is another thermal fountain, and the staircase leads up to the Grand Promenade behind the bathhouses.