Crater of the Diamonds State Park/Arkansas

I have to agree- Crater of Diamonds is a great place to stay. The campground is very clean. It is also inexpensive. I enjoyed seeing all the different states and Canadian provinces that were represented. My daughter and I stayed there in early April, during a couple of rainy days. I learned a valuable lesson for next time: waffle-soled hiking boots do not work well in wet clay soil.

I've been there camping and digging as well. Didn't find anything and I had some RV problems that cut my trip short but I really did enjoy it and plan on going back. What I learned was the best time to plan on being there is right after they till up the fields. If I remember, they do post on their web page when they have scheduled tilling of the fields. Even better if you can be there right after a rain. It seems that this is when the lucky diggers are most successful.

One of the nicest State Parks we have been to! Stopped there last year on our way home from Texas. I did spend two days digging and sifting, but I don't think I had any luck. Still have a bucket of sifted material to check through. While we were there, a young boy was walking back to the entrance store. He saw something shinny in the mud and picked it up. At the desk they checked it and turns out he found a 5 caret chocolate diamond!

If we are in the area again, we would definitely stay in this park again.

Bandaid

We have been there several times. Went there for Thanksgiving one year. Very pretty in the fall. Washington State Park is a must see. You will not be disappointed visiting these two parks.

My husband was born in Hot Springs and has ancestors buried in Washington cemetery. Very intersting area. Love Arkansas!! All I found at the diamond mine was mud and a sore back! LOL

Good to hear as we will be there in Mid June

We used to go there alot back in the mid 60's. Was stationed at LRAFB and lived in Jacksonville AR. We would dig and dig for the diamonds and never could find any. Was always a great time being with the kids and all... Then the wife's mother from Texas came to visit us and she found a diamond on the two trips we went there when she was visiting. Go figure haha....

Along the same line we always sit and sift thru buckets of rocks and dirt when visiting Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. Just to keep the old memories alive I guess... A great way to kill a couple of hours after wandering around all the stores there.

Even here in Virginia there seems to be an increased awareness of the old open gold fields that run the east side of the Blue Ridge mtns... Want to go there as well maybe this camping season... The interests is around the small town of DILLWYN VA.

Look at all the fun these guys are having...

Photo from Google Images

Roy Ken

We camped there and had fun digging. A couple of garnets or whatever, but no diamonds.

We met a guy who had prospected for gold in Alaska for an engagement ring, and was in Arkansas looking for the diamond. I wished him good luck, but was thinking "she gave up waiting on you years ago, amigo."

So did you find any diamonds??