Hot Springs National Park

After having recently travelled hundreds of miles to visit a few National Parks located in other states, it's always nice to be able to make a quick visit a National Park just a short drive away. So the other weekend we drove an hour south and visited Hot Springs National Park. Even though we've been to Hot Springs lots of times before, we did the touristy things this time. We walked by the display springs, got our National Park passport stamped, and looked around the visitor center. As we were walking down Bathhouse Row, a summer thunderstorm popped up. It rained for a few minutes, and managed to drop the outside temperature down about 20 degrees.



I recently saw a video on Instagram from some content creator, which showed her making a frowny face by one of the display springs and giving a big thumbs down. She explained in the video's caption that she saw pictures of Hot Springs online and flew here from across the country. She showed the pictures to a Park Ranger, who then explained to her that the places in her photos don't exist. The pictures she saw were fake - made by AI.

Which I think explains a lot of the reasons why Hot Springs National Park usually ranks at the bottom of those "the WORST National Parks EVER!" lists. People are basing their rankings on stock or AI images and not actually visiting the park, or are completely uninterested in the park's history or what it has to offer. Hot Springs is a small park, but it is vastly underrated.