7/4/2017

Hello beautiful people!

Today I’m going to share with you one of my favorite campgrounds.

I’ve stayed at this one in particular multiple times over the last two years, located in the lovely Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Now I know what you’re thinking, why Arkansas?

Because believe it or not it’s actually quite a beautiful state (especially if you drive north into the Ozarks).

Now the cool part about Gulpha Gorge Campground is that it is nearly minutes from the heart of town driving, yet still very much surrounded by nature (National Park).

Price

All campsites are $30 a night. (This has since increased since I wrote this back in 2017, please check on their website for current price as it seems to continue to change.)

OR $15 per night if you have an America the Beautiful: The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Senior or Access Pass, formerly the Golden Age or Golden Access Pass.

They now include water and electricity at each site as of December 2016.

This was both good and bad news to us this year, because last year it was $10 a night for the primitive sites (which is what we wanted). BUT last year we had to charge our phones with the bathroom outlets, and carry multiple heavy buckets of water to our site for showers/washing dishes. Which leads me to my next point.

Shower Situation

There are unfortunately no showers at Gulpha Gorge. Which is a real drag when you are crystal mining… all day long… covered in mud… BUT we found some great alternatives to remedy this one downside of the campground.

  1. You can use my favorite magical device, the

    Weather

    (Pictured is our new tents we had to buy last year after my 10 year old tent had died in a massive storm)

    The weather is surprisingly great at Gulpha Gorge in the late spring early summer. Anytime after June 28th, if you’re staying in a tent, I would suggest going elsewhere. Because it does become hot and muggy and stay that way at night. But otherwise it’s quite nice at night. I suspect it’s because it is a bit tucked away, so it is far cooler than probably the other surrounding campgrounds for this reason (much like the best campground in Sedona, Arizona).

    Rain.

    Rain is a possibility here, especially thunderstorms. It’s not every day, but they are at least once a week based on all my experiences. Keep your eye out on the forecast every day, unlike Florida, I find that the weather predictions for Hot Springs seems to usually be onpoint. If you see that the predictions say 50%+ for multiple hours throughout the night, then it might be your best bet to look into some of the (very) cheap hotels located within the Hot Springs area. Better safe than wet at 4am in a lightning storm scrambling to forage any items from the site than can’t get poured on. Learn from our experiences… if you sense even a little bit of rain coming pack all those things in advance so you can duck out safely in event of a storm.

    Helpful Suggestions:

    Bring a portable battery operated fan to keep in the tent just incase it gets particularly hot one night (unlikely but still), or for daytime use. I recommend this

     Honorable Mentions

    One of our favorite things about Gulpha Gorge is having a place to set up our hammocks. Almost every site has the right tree setup for at least 1 (and up to 3 if you pick the right sites) hammocks. This was super important for us because we love to lounge during the heat of the day in a cool, shaded hammock. It’s worth looking into, this

    Little things worth noting I wish campgrounds spoke about.

    1. Ticks. There are not a lot of ticks here unlike some other campgrounds in Arkansas. If you go for a hike in the national park, that’s another story. My friend came back with two last year, however at the campground we were all good.
    2. Lots of really friendly neighbor campers here! Everytime I go it never fails to amaze me how nice everyone is. A lot of older travelers, but people of all ages wander through this campground. I found this so refreshing because it’s the friendliest campground oddly enough I stayed at out of the 40+ campgrounds we stayed at last summer throughout the country (Big Sur camping also SUPER friendly). I even had someone give me their spare toothbrush when they saw me struggling to wash my crystals in the creek (I wish Florida had that same kind of charm).
    3. Mosquito situation. Oddly enough not a whole lot of mosquitos here (unlike in Daisy, Arkansas). I believe it’s because of the creek providing moving water that this helps the situation. Beware of campsites very close to a large body of standing water (AKA Lakes). I’ve found that meant death by mosquitoes… but Gulpha Gorge is relatively safe.
    4. You pay for your site inside the main building at a computer.
    5. The people who work onsite are SUPER nice and helpful. Feel free to ask them anything, they helped us so many times each year.
    6. Bathrooms can get dirty, but nothing too terrible. Bring toilet paper just in case.
    7. Lots of nice birds chirping in the morning.
    8. There are sites next to the creek BUT they are the smaller sites. Not so good for anyone who wants to set up a hammock.
    9. There’s a great crystal store you have to pass to get into the campground… and stripclub next door?? It’s a very weird sight to see, but it is there and it is hilarious. Not sure how popular it is, but it’s not a problem to the area.
    10. Energetically this is a great place on all levels contrary to my previous statement.

    With all that being said I hope that you now feel thoroughly informed about the Gulpha Gorge Campground & National Park! It really is one of my favorite hidden away places.

    I look forward to writing more about future campgrounds!

    Like & Follow if you found this article helped you in your planning, I really appreciate it. Comment below if you have any further questions!

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    I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day & happy planning!

    Safe travels,

    Sara