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| NPS photo by Gail Sears |
| Gulpha Gorge Campground |
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Date: November 7, 2008
Contact: Tricia Horn, 501-620-6730
Recreational Vehicles (RV) and motor home camping has become the norm in the United States over the past 20 years. The primitive camping offered at the Gulpha Gorge Campground has become less attractive to the general public due to the lack of modern connection facilities for today’s RVs. Visitation to the campground has dwindled below the point of sustainability, and visitors are becoming more dissatisfied with the primitive offerings at the campground with each passing year. Maintenance costs are not recoverable at current levels of use.
In an effort to begin the upgrade of Gulpha Gorge Campground, the National Park Service has approved a Centennial Challenge project, with matching funds from the Friends of the Fordyce and Hot Springs National Park, Inc., to upgrade 10 campsites with electrical, water and sewer utility hook-up options for trailers, motor homes and RV. Each site will have a conventional 50 amp RV pedestal for electrical connection, a water connection in an underground enclosure and a sewer dump connection, also in an underground enclosure.
The initial project of 10 campsites began in June 2008 with a completion date of September 2008. Our ultimate goal is to supply all 40 campsites that are available to the public with electrical, water and sewer utility hook-ups.
A Campground Comparability Review has been conducted using local state park campgrounds to ascertain the fees being charged for like amenities. Currently the Gulpha Gorge campground provides primitive camping with no utility services available at a fee of $10 per site, per night. The addition of utility services, including electricity, water, and sewer connections, could justify an increase in the nightly fee to $24 per site, per night. Sites without utilities would remain at $10 per night.
The addition of RV hook-ups will dramatically increase the number and duration of visits by the public while at the same time enabling the Park to charge substantially more per visit. Maintenance and operation costs will be recoverable, and public satisfaction with the facilities will be greatly enhanced. Net revenue from the increased usage and increased campground site fee when all 40 campsites have utility hookups is anticipated to be between $60,000 and $75,000 a year.
Under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA), all revenue generated at the campground is retained by the park. The funds have been used to fund high priority projects enhancing visitor experience and providing critical resource protection which have had to be deferred since the park had little discretionary funding.
In the past, these fees have been used to repair campground picnic tables, rehabilitate historic trail shelters, make repairs on the thermal water utility system, and purchase the automated fee collection machine at the campground contact station. With increased revenue from the campground, we will be able to fund more projects, further reducing the backlog of deferred maintenance throughout the park.
The close proximity of this campground to the historic district and the center of Hot Springs National Park enables visitors unprecedented access to the primary cultural and natural resources available, contributing to the Centennial Challenge goal of improving and increasing visitor satisfaction with educational opportunities available at the Visitor Center.
We welcome your comments and suggestions to the proposed increase in fees to the upgraded campground sites. Please address your comments by November 21, 2008, to:
Superintendent
Hot Springs National Park
101 Reserve Street
Hot Springs, Arkansas 71901
or email.
The park will host an Open House on November 17, 2008, from 5-6:30 p.m. at the Lamar Bathhouse to gather comments from the public at large.
