Hot Springs National Park & the Solar Eclipse
There is nothing like witnessing (and photographing) a total solar eclipse. The temperature suddenly cools, your skin tingles, and the entire world stands still and collectively holds its breath. It’s surreal and spectacular. We’ll be deep in the zone of totality at Hot Springs National Park, where the eclipse is predicted to last for 3 minutes, 39 seconds. Prior to that we’ll visit the dark sky park of Buffalo National River and get a better understanding of why Arkansas definitely lives up to its nickname “The Natural State.”
Workshop Details
April 2-9, 2024 — Completed
This is an 8-night, 8-day workshop. Your adventure begins with a group dinner on the evening of April 2 and ends after a final slideshow in the early evening on April 9.
$4,299 + applicable taxes.
Skill level
All Levels. Open to all who have an understanding of the basic principles of photography and of their cameras.
Group size
12, with 2 instructors — 6:1 ratio
NPS website
Hot Springs National Park
Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site
Our workshop mission is to explore every U.S. national park. As with all our Passport Series locations, it may be years (if ever) before we return to any specific park. If you have a dream of making epic long exposures at night at Hot Springs, we hope you join us.
Workshop Leaders
Registration
This event has passed. Thanks for your interest!
| • Deposit of $899 is required to reserve your spot at the workshop. |
| • Balance of $3,400 is due on January 3, 2024. → Pay balance here. |
| • You may choose the “Pay in Full” ticket if you desire to pay all at once. |
| • Last day for a cancellation request is January 2, 2024. (see cancellation and refund policy) |
| • The workshop fee includes a welcome dinner in Little Rock and lodging in Hot Springs from April 6-10. |
| • The workshop fee does not include lodging in Little Rock and Buffalo River, food, airfare, park entrance fees, or transportation to Hot Springs or to our nightly shoot locations. |
The Hot Springs Experience
We’ll visit three different national park units in Arkansas: Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Buffalo National River and Hot Springs National Park as we gear up for the 2024 solar eclipse.
During this adventure you’ll get hands-on instruction on how to plan for and shoot a total solar eclipse. Both Gabe and Matt photographed the 2017 eclipse in totality and the 2023 annular eclipse, so you’re joining experienced instructors.
We will spend 8 days and nights together, kicking things off with a group dinner to get to know our “eclipse family.” The next morning we’ll visit one of the most powerful and polarizing places in the Civil Rights Movement, Little Rock High School. The high school is still as majestic as in 1927 when it was built. It is still a functioning high school, and we’ll spend most of our time educating ourselves on the Little Rock Nine at the visitor center before walking over to the reflecting pool.
We’ll then jump-start the road trip by heading north to the dark skies of our first national river, the Buffalo. This winding river has been enjoyed by humans since 9,500 B.C. It was in danger of being dammed in the 1960s, but reservation won out and it’s now one of the few free-flowing rivers in our country. Part of this preservation provided dark skies along the Buffalo as it cuts its way through massive limestone bluffs through the Ozarks. We will spend two nights capturing the Milky Way rising above these bluffs and creating its own river of stars in the sky.
The road trip continues through The Natural State as we drive south through rolling farmlands, small towns and wilderness areas until we reach our ultimate destination: Hot Springs. The American Spa, as it was known for many years, has been attracting humans to partake in its restorative natural hot waters for thousands of years. It was known as “America’s First Resort” from the 1800s to the 1950s. It was initially designated as our first federal reservation in 1832, 40 years before we had a national park system! It officially became our 18th national park in 1921.
Now a city of 38,000, the settlement of Hot Springs preserves the grandiose Bathhouse Row and the hills surrounding the springs. It is one of the most unique units in the national park system.
Why pick this as a location to photograph the Total Solar Eclipse? Foreground. The eclipse will happen high in the sky in Arkansas, and there will be plenty of unique manmade and forested views that we can choose from.
We’ll arrive in Hot Springs 2 days ahead of time to scout and prepare for the perfect shots. We are working very closely with Hot Springs National Park and also have access to a shuttle from our hotel to downtown for ease of transportation.
Did we mention how photogenic the Gilded Age and deco bathhouses are? Two of them are still functioning, so let’s get our reservation in for a spa day ASAP!
The eclipse will begin at 12:32 p.m. Totality will begin at 1:49 p.m. and will last 3 minutes, 39 seconds, ending at 1:53 p.m. The moon will continue moving over the sun until the end of the partial phase at 3:10 p.m. Expect to be in our shoot locations much earlier than that.
We also have a meeting room reserved at our hotel in Hot Springs and will spend time teaching you how to post-process your eclipse images and composites. When the world drives home on the 8th or 9th, we’ll be comfortably working on our images at our hotel. Because of this, stay on the 9th and we’ll celebrate our epic week together with a slideshow of your favorite images that night.
What You Should Know
This workshop caters to knowledgeable photographers with an intermediate or higher skill set. Participants should have a firm grasp of the basic principles of photography and of their cameras, and have a comfortable understanding of night photography fundamentals. We will be happy to offer advice and answer questions about both day and night photography, but the focus of the formal education will be on the eclipse and night photography.
If you would like to attend this workshop but are unsure whether you have adequate night photography skills, we can offer pre-workshop tutoring to get you ready for your adventure with us. Alternatively or additionally, a few of us have written books that may be productive pre-workshop reads.
What You Will Learn
We hope to push you to step outside your comfort zone—to test the limits of what you and your camera can do.
TOPICS COVERED WILL INCLUDE:
planning for and capturing a total solar eclipse
using trackers to follow the sun
shooting a wider eclipse composite
camera settings for an eclipse
blue hour blends with dark skies
star points and noise stacking
star trails
and more …
Night Conditions
Logistics & General Info
Travel
You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own transportation. We recommend flying in and out of Little Rock, or road-tripping to meet us there.
Nearby Airports:
Hot Springs Municipal Airport (HOT) — 10 minutes from the hotel
Little Rock (LIT) — 1 hour
Rental Car
You will need a rental car.
There is no need for four-wheel-drive.
If you are interested in carpooling or sharing a rental car, let us know and we will try to connect you with another attendee looking for the same.
Lodging & Food
We are staying in three cities and three hotels, and will enjoy plenty of delicious southern food along the way.
Lodging
You will need to book 1 night stay in Little Rock for April 2, 2024.
Your hotel room for the other nights in Hot Springs has been paid for and reserved. It is part of your ticket price. Finding hotel rooms less than 1 year from an eclipse is not fun, so we took care of it you.
We have a block of rooms in Harrison, 40 minutes from the visitor center at Buffalo River. Info and group code will be sent soon after registering.
Food
There will be plenty of food options available along our road trip.
All of our hotels have refrigerators in case you want to stock up on supplies.
When on the eclipse and night shoots, you may wish to bring snack food or a sandwich and plenty of water.
You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own meals and most accommodations.
Weather
Expect daytime highs in the 70s F, lows in the 50s.
Recommended Attire
Shorts and short-sleeved shirts for daytime, light pants and another layer for night.
A sweatshirt and medium-weight jacket will likely be useful, and a base layer might not be a waste of packing space. Layers are good.
Comfortable and protective shoes are recommended for getting around. There won’t be long hikes, but we will be on trails, so quality trails shoes or hiking boots would be optimal.
Exertion Level
The exertion level of this workshop is Easy. (See more about our classifications.)
No vigorous activity will be required during the workshop, but please consider your physical abilities prior to registering. There won’t be any long hikes, but there will be trails involved, and you should be comfortable carrying your own equipment over uneven ground in the dark.
Considerations
IMPORTANT: We encourage reading our FAQs section for more information about skill and gear requirements, and other information that pertains to all our workshops.
If you have questions, please contact us—we're happy to talk it over with you.
Falling in Love with Arkansas …
“Chris joked with me long ago that I would love Hot Springs because it’s the only national park that has a working brewery within its boundaries.”
I checked off all 50 states a long time ago. Can you guess which was the last state?
Florida.
Can you believe that?
Yet there are some states I have no recollection of. Perhaps I just drove through and pumped some gas or didn’t even stop at all. One of those states is Arkansas.
Now I can say that I have righted that ship and know The Natural State very well. So I’m excited to have chosen this state to experience next year’s Great American Eclipse.
Chris joked with me long ago that I would love Hot Springs because it’s the only national park that has a working brewery within its boundaries. It’s in the historic Superior Bathhouse, and actually pumps in and brews with the hot mineral water from the springs. And the beer is actually pretty good.
One thing I should note about the springs is that there is no sulfur associated with them. Hot Springs bubbles up as pure mineral water that’s been heated by geothermal action. No volcanoes were used in heating the water, so no sulfur added. You can fill your water bottles from the various fountains that run up and down the Grand Promenade—it’s hot water, of course, so you might either ice or to head over to Happy Hollow Fountain to find the only cold fountain in town.
I had a blast on my trip to Arkansas. I visited four national park units, became a Junior Ranger in all four, and I’ll be taking you to three of them. (Sorry, Fort Smith National Historic Site!) The whole state was abuzz about the eclipse and the real rangers were excited to hear about our plans to return.
