Scenic Gulpha Gorge

Most of eastern United States has been in the grip of a cold April for a few days now, including Dallas and the parts of Arkansas we visited a week earlier. Makes me glad we went while it was still warm in those parts. Cold up here in early spring I can shrug off, but driving two days in a southwesterly direction just to have the cold follow me like a stalker? Argh.

The only time during the entire trip that we wore the jackets and sweaters we’d brought was early in the morning at Gulpha Gorge Campground in Hot Springs National Park. It had started to rain sometime in the night and when we woke up the air was slightly cool – just right for a light jacket. That didn’t last during the day we subsequently spent in Hot Springs, however. It continued to rain on and off, but it also got fairly warm. A good day for duck-in-the-building tourism.

Such an evocative name, the Gulpha Gorge Campground. Sounds like campsites surrounded by towering cliffs with a wild river running through it. Actually it was very much like a minor state campground with hills nearby and a gurgling creek running through it. But they were pleasant green hills and I was glad the creek was so tame: it would have hardly had the force to whisk a playful four-year-old away. Playing in the rocky creek, all the better for throwing things and making splashes, was the high point of this particular camping expedition for the girls.