Gulpha Gorge Campground — Hot Springs National Park

Small CG convenient to Hot Springs. Sites 2-7 are adjacent to the road, not desirable. The sites that back up to the creek are better. If you enjoy hiking, this is an excellent location. Clean restrooms, no showers.

National Park campground, sites along the creek are really nice. Wished they would have sold firewood as we couldn’t find any anywhere in town and had to scavenge. Very quiet despite being totally full with RVs.

A little close to a busy road, but if you have a creek spot you can hear the water flowing! Trails nearby and showerless bathrooms in the campground. We showered at a nearby KOA for about $7 per shower.

Smaller campground. Sites are close together. Beautiful setting near a creek and with access to many hiking trails. Clean bathrooms but no showers. Good Verizon signal. Some road noise.

Great little NP campground. Friendly staff, close to trails and to the bath houses.

Sites were very close to each other.

This is a well maintained campground that is very close to town. This was 95% full of RVs and only 5% tent campers. If you are an RVer this would be a 5 star campground but as a Tent camper it is only a 3 star. As a tent camper the lack of campground showers was minus one star. They also had one of the two bathrooms permanently closed so there was only one bathroom available for the entire campground. The other is tent campers run into when we stay at an RV campground is excessive noise and light pollution. All of the RVs kept their outside LED lights on all night which made the whole campground bright as daylight. Which made it very bright and hard to sleep in a tent. Also all of the RV AC units constantly running all night really cut back on the peace and quiet camping experience minus second star. If they made it a dark sky campground where RVers were encouraged to turn off outside light when quiet hours started that would make a huge difference. Site 27 was a nice site that backed to the creek but like most of the site is catering to RVer so there was no area to set up a tent other than on the pavement.

Good location (close to city and access to the the NP trail directly from the campground). Site could be more private but the campground is well maintained.

Close to town and near a busy road but the bathrooms are clean and campsites are level. Small sites but fine for a few nights stay.

We wanted to come to Hot Springs but knew that the sites at Gulpha Gorge would be small, so were expecting to be disappointed—we’ve been pleasantly surprised. Would have loved to get a site on the creek, but they’re popular and we planned the trip on short notice. The hosts are super friendly, bathrooms are spotless, and the campground is well maintained. Definitely recommend if you’re in the area.

We stayed at spot 19. It was slightly uneven, maybe 1 degree slant to the side, not much front to back. Park is on the smaller side so the spots arent super big, ours was very close to the neighbors. Hookups are really well done with electricity, water, and sewage. Bathrooms were very clean. A lot of trash cans available. The campground does get a lot of road noise during the day but pretty quiet at night. Verizon has between 2-4 bars throughout the campground and we got speeds up to 80 mbps. Very pet friendly, quick walk to the creek, easy access to the trails. Highly recommended goat rock lookout.

I stayed at two different sites for two separate nights in a tent. Both of these sites had minimal space for tent camping and barely fit my tent, but it works. However, it was beautiful because I could sit and look/listen to the creek. The bathrooms were well maintained, landmarks for sites were obvious, and the volunteers that work there were incredibly helpful and nice.

Paved throughout. Full hookups. And in a National Park Campground. I got my reservation within 3 days of staying there. You must reserve and I did see many spots not being used although reserved. A wonderful creek runs next to campground. Trails to walk. There is NO internet. But cell signal was good for AT&T.

We loved our stay at Gulpha Gorge. We arrived on a Tuesday night to no vacancy, but a woman intersected us to tell us they were leaving at 7am the next day. So we stayed overnight at a Walmart and got back in time to take their spot.

We were very fortunate that the site was level and also creekside. If you’re able, definitely scope a level, creekside spot. Some sites have grills whereas others have fire rings. 42 has a grill with holes in the bottom; but that’s my only complaint about the entire experience.

Verizon has great cell coverage - enough to stream video. ATT not so much. You can walk one of the trails into the city (45 min walk) and to the tower. There are plenty of other trails; all accessible through the campgrounds

As a tent camper, this cg has more lights than I prefer. Good restroom, no shower. Site #s in the 20s-40s are beside the cold creek (a godsend for camping in summer!). Campsites are good sized but a bit close, none really private. Pretty good shade.

Loving my stay here. This is a beautiful campground, my site is on the creek and I love to hike and the national park trails are so convenient to try campground. Will definitely be back.

I had a wonderful time. The campground is so pretty. Full hookups, water, electricity and sewer. I am in an RV but there’s a lot of noise from the road if you are in a tent. Also there isn’t a bathhouse on site so you can’t take a shower there. I love how easy it is to access downtown and bathhouse row from the campground. I hiked downtown using the trail system that is just across the stone walkway next to the amphitheater. You just go across the creek and can go left to the downtown area or up to the Mountain Tower or to the right to access the Sunset Trail. You can hike up to the Mountain tower or Goat Rock, down the Sunset Trail or the Oerchtel Trail to go downtown. Some of the campsites are right on the creek. It’s just a beautiful place to visit. They’ve recently moved to a reservation system through Recreation.gov

I loved camping right near the river but did not love the traffic noise at night. The campsites are pretty close together but the bacon it’s is gorgeous and well kept.

This is a small campground (~44 sites), but we came in early November and the foliage is beautiful. Lots of sites are on a pretty babbling brook, and we lucked out by getting the last site. Most days you have to arrive around 0700 to get a spot, especially on weekends and peak seasons. If you are an avid hiker you could easily take a trail to downtown Hot Springs, but we can’t walk that far, so we do the 5 minute drive instead. With our senior discount and national park pass, we paid $15/day with full hookups. People are friendly and it has a serene atmosphere. Okay Amazing!

No reserved spaces but lots of turnover. Wooded with nice creek and tons of trails. Loved it.

This park has about 40 spaces with full hookups for $30/night. Big rigs and tents are acceptable. There are no reservations, and checkout time is noon, so if you want to stay here, you should get here about noon and look for someone who is leaving. The park fills back up every day. Find a spot, pull in, and pay at 12:15 at a kiosk. They will come by and verify that you have paid between 1 and 2. There are bathrooms, but no showers.

Love this campground. Close to everything and with full hookups you can’t beat it.

Well spaced sites next to walking trail. Some highway noise as it is next to the highway. Asphalt site are nice but some are not very level.

Clean and well maintained. Close to town and hiking trails. Some sites are not very level. Nice creek running through one side of camp. Full hook ups lots of shade trees. Good for a few days and time to move on.

It was kept generally clean, the plots are close together but it wasn't filled when I was there so it worked out!

Great location, noisy from all the traffic on the road lots of commercial vehicle use on a 2-lane road. Don’t notice inside an RV if you’re running your a/c but hard to ignore if you’re outdoors or in a tent. Some sites are tight and you’re wedged in to small spaces, some larger and more spread out. Great location to explore downtown, bathhouse row, and the hiking trails in the Hot Springs National Park. There are bathrooms with flush toilets and sinks with running water but no showers. I personally like the first come, first serve, no reservation policy because it makes it so much more fair to get a campsite. I hope they keep the policy in place. Automated check in system inside a small building. Campground hosts or the rangers will come by later and check your tickets on the posts if no one is in the office when you pay. No need to hang around your campsite just out the paper on the post and go on with your life. Great location. Hope to stay again when I am in the area.

Beautiful brook side campgrounds right on the Hot Springs national park. Camp sights are first come first serve at noon (find an empty sight, claim/park, and pay at the front) and all drive up standard sights. Good for tenting, hammocks, or RV. All sights have power/water/septic, fire pit, and picnic table. Connects to the park trails so it’s great for hiking. Can easily go up the mountain or walk into town. Has bathrooms, but no showers.

We stayed at Gulpha Gorge while spending a day of our road trip in Hot Springs. We arrived later than planned at about 10am, and there still were several spots available. We chose the very first site next to the entrance as it was by the creek and had a  nice white noise. The bathrooms were clean and what you would expect from a Parks Service bathroom. The camp hosts were excellent and very helpful, particularly in navigating the unusual reservation machine they have. All around a good base camp for the area.

Being a first come, we showed up early and got a great shaded site on the creek. The sites are tight, but clean. No showers were available. We hiked to Hot Springs and to the Tower from the camoground.

I would give it a 4-star rating for location but personally I don't like crowded, busy, noisy campgrounds by a major road. A tip: all sites are first-come-first-serve and you must use a machine and credit ir debit card to buy the spot. Arrive between 9 AM and 10 AM to find a spot, snag it, then, after 12, the machine will let you buy the ticket.

The sites come with water, electric, a grill, and restrooms with running water. No showers and no fire pits though although some had fires going anyway.

The campground is walking distance from all the beautiful trails that wind up and down the nearby hills. You can spend days exploring them.

As I said, the downside is how there are many day trip visitors, cars driving around looking for spots, and mist sites are closer to each other than I like although you can find a couple sites that feel more private if you are lucky.

I was lucky to have friendly and interesting neighbors there. The park looks small but some if the trails go on for up to 12 miles that I saw. There is a mountain tower worth paying to visit for a full panoramic view of the whole area.