10/8/14 Hot Springs National Park, AR

With last nights early bed time I woke up early this morning about 6:30.  I got up and did some computer work and decided with the weather forecast showing a lot of rain on its way starting tomorrow that we should pack up and travel to "Hot springs National Park"  campground which is named "Gulpha Gorge Campground".  When Jami got up around 9:00 or so I informed her of my thoughts and she agreed.  It was only about 120 miles so we were in no rush to hit the road.  Jami worked on her Facebook pages and posted the pictures in yesterday journal entry for me.  Her computer is the only one that can add pictures to these post, but we should be able to get that fixed while in Hot Springs, AR. 


Once she finished her computer work we began packing up which didn't take very long since we were here only 1 night so we didn't get much out.  We were hooked up and pulling out before 11:00.  We by-passed the dump station and hit the road.  It was a great travel day with light traffic and decent roads until we got into Hot Springs.  The traffic picked up and the streets narrowed as they became more city streets.  We made it to the campground with out any issues, parked the camper across from the office and drove the Toyota to select a camp site.  This is not a large campground, the sites are close together and very small so needles to say this is not our cup of tea.  There are a few sites along the creek that would be nice, but of course they are taken for the next 3 days.  we selected site 19 and got the camper parked.  Only the camper fits so I had to park the Dually in the overflow parking area.

Picture of our campsite

Not being very happy about this campground we decided to take a drive to "Lake Ouachita State Park Campground" about 30 minutes away.  Its was a great campground, the only problem is a lot of other people thought so too.  There were a few empty sites, but once we checked with the office we learned they only had one site available over this coming weekend and we didn't want that site.  We headed back home and hit a Taco Bell drive thru on the way.  Once home we ate our dinner outside and then walked up to the office and paid for 1 night.  Our plan was to stay a lot longer until we arrived and saw the campground, so now we are searching around for other options.  Don't get me wrong, this is a nice campground with full hook ups & 50amp electric,  just not our style/type. 


One odd thing about this National Park is the visitor center is in town.  Usually when we think of a national park we don't think of a city, but this park is a little different.  It does have lots of woods, but it also has a city in it where the hot springs and visitor center are located.  Now 27 of the 46 hot springs have been capped to prevent contamination and I believe you can only view 2 of the remaining open springs, the rest they use to pipe the water to a holding tank where it cools from 143 degrees to 100 degrees and then is piped to the numerous buildings offering spas all lined up one after another.  They call this "Bath House Row"  and most of these buildings were built in the early 1900's.  We didn't stop and go into any of them, but we did do some research on-line about the area and its history so we knew what we were looking at as we drove by.


Once home we then took Jemma on a walk down by the creek, she of-course went right in the water and then showed us how to cross the creek using the provided steps.

We then walk a short distance down the trail on the other side of the water, but only wearing flip flops we couldn't go very far.  There was a side trail that led you back to the creek so we took it so we could get a few more pictures.

Short video so you can hear to sound of the flowing water

Once we climbed these rock steps we turned around and headed back the way we came.

And Jemma again walking around in the water.  For a dog that can barely swim she sure does love being in the water.

 Jemma was a little nervouswith the flowing water so she took it slow :)

Once home we both got on our laptops, Jami researching campgrounds nearby and on our route towards Herber Springs, AR. where we need to be by end of next week and I was working on todays journal entry.  Once Jami decided what we were doing she took a shower and then I took mine.  The remainder of the evening was watching TV.  We were unable to get a satellite signal so we watched recorded shows.  Around 10:30 we took Jemma for her last walk of the day and then headed to bed.  Stay tuned to see what Jami has planned for us :)