ThePewterPalace Our Love Affair with Avions

We spent 5 nights at the NPS Gulpha Gorge Campground at the end of March into early April, 2025. Unfortunately, 4 of our 6 days were fraught with very bad rain and thunderstorms (a.k.a. creek near high water marks!) so we did not get to see a few things in the area we had hoped to do or go for any easy hikes.

This CG is very convenient to the NPS sites in the park including the Mountain Tower, the very historic Bath house Row, several hot spring water fill stations (hot and cold ones), some excellent hiking trails and more.

You can take trails directly from the campground to get to Mountain tower and into downtown if you prefer to not drive into downtown. The drive is less than 2 miles by hopping back onto RT 7 west. See list of hikes below and proximity to or start points in the campground. More on hiking in the area.

The CG only has 40 sites. ALL of them are FHU and paved!!! Yes, you read that correctly FHU at a NPS campground!  They do accept the National Park pass or in our case the NPS Lifetime Access Senior Pass to get 50% off camping fees. There is no extra add on for hookups. The CG can handle RVs we would say up to 40 ft. Much longer than that could severely limit sites you could get into. It took us 5 times to angle into our site #36 which is one of the sites along Gulpha Creek. The sound of the babbling creek was lovely to be sure. The sites on the interior side of the main loop tend to have a pitch forward to back with many of the trailers and motorhomes having to block up their tongue jacks or front levelers considerably. Our site 36 was about 2 inches low on the passenger side, but near level front to back.

NEW to this campground is a shower house which just opened last Fall ’24. It has a side for women, and a side for men and features a lockable 3 pc bathroom with toilet, sink and shower stall. Sadly, once again a severe lack of hooks in the shower area!! There is NO charge for showers.

There is no formal check in but all sites require advance reservations made via Recreation.gov. We did have to park our truck on a bit of an angle to get it off the roads. Roads thrugh the campground are one way and pretty narrow.  There is a nice amphitheater where Rangers may do sporadic talks in peak season (with federal cuts not likely to be any). There was an older volunteer here during daytime hours to change out date tags on sites. Maintenance is done by NPS staff and the bathrooms and shower house were spotless (save a large spider in the ladies bathroom!)

The area is know for its history including the venerable bath houses, the now abandoned massive Army Navy Hospital that looms over the downtown city. It is totally off limits, supposedly haunted but also well guarded by federal officials so do not try trespassing-as tempting as it may be. To see inside, simply go to Youtube and search for “army navy hospital, hot springs, AR” and plenty of videos will show up.

Also in the region are quartz and diamond mines, now tourist attractions. The downtown area of Hot Springs was a little more depressed than we expected with empty and abandoned buildings in various state of disrepair. There is evidence though of new rehabilitation happening to some which is great to see. Here is a slide show of some of the downtown area. Please note, MOST of the downtown parking is pay to park with an app. We did find free parking spaces on Spring Street as you head towards downtown and near the federal employee parking lot (but do not go into their lot!)

Below is a Slide show of downtown Hot Springs. A little disappointing the amount of period buildings on the west side of the street in disrepair, but there are signs of reinvestment happening. There are multiple public water fill springs throughout the downtown. Some are hot spring water, some cold. TIP- for hot spring water, let the water run for a few seconds first as that will get out the water sitting in the pipes that may be only luke warm…trust us…the HOT will come and be careful as can get to over 115 degrees coming out! You will see many folks filling countless jugs of water for their home consumption. DO NOT use plastic jugs-they will melt!

BTW….the water coming out is estimated to be over 4000 years old!

Now for a slide show “sample” from the Fordyce Bath House which is the official NPS museum in the National Park. It is a truly amazing and beautifully maintained building rich in its bespoke designs, stained glass ceiling windows and its treatment rooms, etc are exactly as they were from the Edwardian to 1920s. It is free and self guided. You even can go down to the basement to see the old Otis elevator gear house and cisterns for water as well as one of the hot springs under the floor which fed the treatment baths—the water is still there and its opening is surrounded by amazing huge crystal formations! This is ONLY a teaser amount of photos….visit our Facebook page photo album on this bath house for more photos!

Another worthwhile thing we did while here was to visit the Mountain Tower which can be seen even miles away as you are approaching the campground entrance. The current tower is 216 feet high when you are standing at the observation open air deck. There is an enclosed level just below which houses various historical artifacts, signboards and photos from the town’s history and historic bath houses.

At the time of our trip it cost us $12 each to enter the tower proper. This was using a discount of the NPS Lifetime Senior Pass, but I believe it is the regular Senior and Military rate as well. You have choice to either walk up the some 200++ staircase or take the elevator. We chose the latter. It was super windy up there the day we went just as the 4 days worth of storms were coming in. But we were treated to some great scenic views of the mountain valley that is where Hot Springs is located. It is worth the cutback one way drive up and down the mountain. They also have an extensive gift shop with some really nice sticker selections which we wish we had seen before we bought others in downtown. oh well. Here is a gallery of some of those “top of the tower” scenes. To see more about the drive up, video at the top and sites from the top, visit our facebook album of Hot Springs!

When camping, it is so easy to meet great people and make new friends. Here is a photo of our newest camping friends, Carole and Tonny who were our campsite neighbors. Carole is from the UK and I could listen to that accent all day! We bumped into them in downtown and had lunch together at Grateful Head Pizza and Beer Garden! They live right in Little Rock and come here often. This was their spring shake down trip. Hopefully we will see them again on the road! In the meantime we spent lunch discussing Alaska (they are driving there in the Fall) as well as sharing tips and ideas on RV camping and destinations.

Our last gallery here are some of the shots taken along the famous, historical “bath house row” in downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas. Hope you enjoyed this blog post. Please visit our facebook page and our dedicated photo album for lots more photos and ideas on what to see and do!

More things to do on a return trip for us may include the following since the weather did not cooperate too well for us this visit! We will be back! Here is a link to the Hot Springs Vacation Guide!

Diamond & Crystal Hunting!

This Crystal Mine & shop is walkable from the Campground!

Garvan Woodland Gardens (looks fabulous especially in springtime!)