Crater of Diamonds

Part of our summer vacation was Craters of Diamonds and Hot Springs NP. It was hot, darn hot. We spent three days at Craters of Diamonds SP. We missed the BIG find the 10 year old found by two days. The day we were there another diamond was found, and the day before we arrived another was found. The last two were not as big as the one the 10 year old found.
We however did not find any diamonds. We spent three days there and looked and dug allot, well my wife did. After a couple hours in the heat I started looking for other treasures. There is allot more than diamonds to be found. The nicest rock one can look for are the Bacon Agate. Not as rare as a diamond, but rare enough that you do not find it all over the place. We came away from there with some nice specimens and for rock hounds like my wife and I this was treasure enough for us.
Since we had Tricera-Pod we stayed at the park campgrounds. Not only is it a nice place, it is very clean, and sites are large. Large enough to park an RV and set up a tent if you want.
We also stayed at Hot Springs National Park Gulph Gorge Campground. This was a VERY nice campground. Only 30 sites with full RV hook-ups and it is first come first served, but if you arrive around noon you should have no trouble getting a spot. The only drawback to this campground is there are NO showers. But there is a river going through the campground and if you do not mind he cold water and do not use soap it's ok. If cold water is not your thing and do not like using sand to wash off with (old trick my dad taught me) you can go into town and use one of the two spa's. For $18 you can soap in the hot waters at the Quapaw Spa and then take your shower.
By the way, if you are a rock hound you can go crystal digging at any number of places in the area. For $20 you can dig all day and take home everything you find. We took out about 100 pounds of crystals or more from our adventure. One thing of note, most of these mines are in isolated areas, no bathrooms ( except the forest), no food, or water. And in the summer it is hot. I got a touch of heat exhaustion, well more than a touch. So be careful if you go digging.
I would be happy to talk to you about our trip via the phone. Just give me a call at 757-572-6731. And if you are a rock hound I can suggest a few more places we went rock collecting over the summer. We like to combine our National Park visits with rock, fossil and mineral collecting.