We were in such a hurry to head east because we found a rare 3-night window to camp at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. It’s one of only 2 state parks in the country that encourages visitors to take rocks and the only diamond mine open to the public.
This was our first camping experience at a state park and it was great! The wooded backdrop, large sites, and great walking trails make state parks great places to camp. Full hookups and a nearby shower house helped too!
Upon our arrival, we visited town and had a lazy night.
The next morning, we got up and hit the diamond field right away. We found a semi-shaded spot and started hunting for diamonds. After and hour or so, the kids were done. We all headed back to eat lunch. The kids and Karissa took a nap while I headed back out to keep looking. But it wasn’t our day to find treasure.
We headed into town again to get something to eat at a local Mexican place. And let me tell you….Mexican food in small-town Arkansas isn’t very good. We had ice cream to wash away the taste and headed back for a nice, long walk in the woods. Also, we set up our first campfire of the trip.
We tried our luck again at the diamond fields. The kids again had fun playing in the dirt. But again, they had just over an hour in them before they were done. This time, Karissa took them back while I kept hunting. I swear I had a small brown diamond on the tip of my hand shovel when a strong wind blew. So I scooped up all of the surrounding dirt/gravel and took it home. We’ll find it later, no doubt!
We made an afternoon Wal-Mart run and played at the campground’s playground. Then, we hunted through my gravel for an hour or so looking for that brown diamond I know is there.
We were leaving the final morning, but Karissa needed to go hunt…especially because it had rained overnight and that supposedly helps folks find diamonds. So she spent about 90 minutes looking but didn’t come back with anything.
Crater of Diamonds is a place we’ll definitely revisit someday. The hunt for treasure is fun an average of 2 diamonds are found a day. When our kids are older and can be helpful, we think we’ll do it again.