Gulpha Gorge Campground

We stayed here right after the National Park opened again after COVID-19 Quarantine so there was relatively few people here...even so the whole "first-come-first-serve" thing is very stressful! The camp host told us normally it is very cut-throat with people getting there early and staking sites out. We drove around to pick a site, and while un-hitching at the dump station (which no one uses because = full hookups) I went and paid for our site at the kiosk. This took all of 2 minutes and when I went back to put the receipt on the site post, someone was already in it unpacking! I had to nicely apologize and beg them to leave as I had already paid and there is NO site switching after you paid. They were nice about it, but apparently protocol is to leave something in the site to signify you are taking it (camp chair, etc.). The babbling creek that runs behind the sites was a nice surprise, but even more so was the blazing fast Verizon hotspot speeds! I'm talking 50-70Mbps down!! We also had a great time here hiking to the brewery for dinner, and I was able to run some of the trails during my lunch break. The sites are a little close together, think like an RV resort would have. But in my opinion the full hookups make up for it. A tip is that you technically only have to book 1 night, and then you have until 12 pm the next day to re-up and book another. But if you booked 7 nights and decided to leave early you would not get a refund, so booking a couple days at a time may be the better option. Not having a reservation makes me WAY too nervous, so we had a backup reservation at Lake Catherine State Park. Gulpha Gorge is way better (and closer to Hot Springs) but beware the Arkansas State Park system cancellation policy is a one-night deposit, so it was a relatively pricey cancellation.

We were here first day it reopened post-CoVid 19 closure on 5/29/2020. We were the second set of campers to arrive. I was so happy to get a site by the creek. Hiking trails at my back door, historic Bathhouse Row just over the mountain, beautiful creek running behind the RV. Full hookups (water/electricity and sewage). What’s not to love? I plan on returning in the winter so I can hike the trails. One drawback is between the motorcycles that come rumbling through the campground and the heavy traffic on the main road this is not a quiet campground. Also the campground is wedged in between the swimming area and the picnic area so lots of foot traffic and vehicles coming through all day long. People who weren’t staying in the campground just walk through your site or walk behind your RV if they are walking alongside the creek. The two reasons it doesn’t earn 5 stars is noise level and traffic (vehicles and people on foot).

Access to the park is good. Paved all the way. Signage was easy to see.

The park office is not manned. There is a self serve vending machine that will accept credit cards as well as cash. You find an unoccupied (un-tagged) site. Park your rig and then register. We poked our faces into the washrooms. There are no showers but they were clean.

Our site, 14, was a back in and it consisted of an asphalt pad with a Concrete table, Grill and Fire Pit The utilities, power, water and sewer were to the left rear. The park is adjacent to the road way but there is very little traffic that passes by so it did not bother us.

Our Verizon cell and Mifi worked well. There is not internet at the park. We did get some OTA TV. Satellite would probably be difficult. There are lots of trees.

The camp hosts looked after the park very well. They were pleasant but appeared to be firm ensuring rules and regs were followed.

We paid $30.00 per night and feel we were well served. If you have a Passport America you are entitled to a 50% discount. This is a very nice park. We would be back if in the area.

This is a nice first come first serve campground in the Hot Springs National Park. The campground is very clean and well kept. Most of the sites will fit any size rig as long as you are decent at backing up. Each site has water, up to 50 amp service, sewer, fire pit, and picnic table. We luckily found a site right on the river which was amazing. All of the sites are fairly close together, but some have trees/shrubbery in between.

We were able to hike about 3 miles to get to bathhouse row. This was an easy/moderate level hike and was very easy to get to via the provided maps. This campground is about 10-15 minutes driving distance to the nearest Walmart, Lowes, Best Buy, or other big box store. There are plenty of neat places to visit and eat in town and on bathhouse row.

This is definitely a place we will be coming to again. We will getting there during the week as the spots fill up on Friday. We were told by the camp host that it gets really busy during peak season. We were lucky that we came in late February. 10/10!!

We love this park as it is camping in nature but close to fun things to do nearby. Campsites are a little close together and there are no showers/laundry/cable but that is the only reason we didn’t give this five stars. We were backed up to a creek and lots of hiking trails nearby. Be sure to go to one of the mineral baths nearby, totally rejuvenating!

Lovely trees, adjacent to the creek. Wish it was warm enough that I could sleep with the windows open! Full hook ups, cement picnic table, rusted BBQ grill. This site has no fire ring, but many others do. Level pad right to left, but had to stack several levelers to put down the back stabilizers.

Tip: No reservations. Upside: As long as you are in the spot, you can keep renewing at noon on the day of departure. So I was able to pay for a couple of nights and then three more after I decided to hang out a little longer.