Queen Wilhelmina State Park — Attraction in Mena

we were doing a road trip and arrived at Queen Wilhelmina on 3/2/20. the lodge appeared to be empty or very, very few lodgers. there was no one in the camping area. we are primitive campers. the part does have a very nice bath house; we knew because we'd stayed at the park before (tent camping). we were again tent camping and when i went to the lodge to pay for a campsite, i asked to camp close to the bath house. i was told absolutely no way, must camp on end of road, past train tracks in tent only campsites. i explained there was a great deal of wind, possible storm coming and we were tenting camping, myself and my son. again, told by desk staff that no way could i camp anywhere but in the 5 lots at the end of the drive. The 5 tent camping sites are the farthest from the bath house, are closest to the highway and are mostly on unlevel ground so has built up areas to create a level spot for a table, another for the fire pit and another for a tent. extremely poor planning on the parks' part. i asked to speak with the person in charge. the desk staff were nearly rude, insisting that it wouldn't make any difference, i could not camp anywhere but in the 5 tent spots at the end of the road. i did speak with the park ranger who was in charge who confirmed that, although the park was empty, they wouldn't allow a tent camp on one of the empty rv spots unless i paid full price. considering that primitive camping is $20 with taxes, i chose not to pay even more to sleep in my own tent in an empty campground. we did stay the night but i'll make sure we don't stay in that part or possibly any Ark state run park again. we live in texas and camp all over the country. first time i've ever had a part be so unfriendly and uncooperative. the ranger agreed that the layout of the park was wrong, said her supervisor also is primitive camper and felt the park was poorly laid out but they still wouldn't allow flexibility in their rules. even though i had no electric or water hookup equipment, would be sleeping in a tent with only a Toyota Tacoma as a vehicle, they restricted me to the 5 tent spots at the end of an empty campground, next to the highway, farthest from the bath facitily. way to go QW State Park, thanks for encouraging primitive campers that don't want to drive gas-guzzling rvs, etc., when trying to...

My review is for the camp sites and specifically from the perspective of a tent camper. TLDR; Sites are too close together, staff was not knowledgeable about their own camp sites, and inflexible booking ruined our weekend.

The first issue we had was the sites were right on top of each other. Some sites literally had the fire pit on the line between two sites. This could be great if you have a group, but could also be very uncomfortable if you don't know your neighbors. The second issue we had was just a general lack of knowledge about the camp sites from the front desk. There were only 1 other site booked the weekend we went, so we had our pick of the crop. The gentleman who booked us put us at RV sites (because we wanted electricity) with "tent pads". We didn't get into the camp site until after dark and it was quite cold and windy, so we were really trying to get our tent set up ASAP. Come to find out, neither site we booked had tent pads. We looked around in the dark only to find that the site was completely on a hill except for one part which was concrete (you cannot stake a tent into concrete). So after about 30-45 minutes of looking around at other tent sites in the dark, we finally found two sites that were relatively tent-friendly. Thankfully since the sites weren't already booked, they let us change spots. The only reason I am giving this park 2 stars is because the woman at the front desk was kind when we had to call 4 times to get our site switched (even though she knew virtually nothing about camping or the camp sites). This was the 11th state park we had been to, and it was by far the worst. Another complaint that is just generally about our state parks system is that there is no flexibility when booking. There was a burn ban issued the day before we were to go camping and they would not let us cancel or even move our reservation to a different state park that was not under a burn ban. Who wants to go camping without a camp fire?? We ended up eating our 2nd day reservation fee because the weather got unexpectedly awful and we could not have a fire, so we had to...

BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING VIEWS!! especially if you come up the mountain from Mena on a clear sky afternoon with some clouds... stop on every Vista on the way up so it really hits you how beautiful it is once you get up there! and i HIGHLY recommend you stay at the lodge! its definitely worth the price! especially if you're a couple with kids (double queen bed for $95 a night) and its a great deal if you split it with friends! Hotel may look dated in pictures but it has been renovated recently and all the rooms are spacious, with comfortable beds, VERY clean, awesome bathroom, perfect ac/heater temps, and a very nice decor/look & feel inside the hotel overall! Hotel has a restaurant that serves breakfast/dinner buffets which are decent for being a hotel ran by the US National Park service, but nothing to write home about- which is not an issue honestly you're not here for the food :). We were lucky enough to see it with clear skies on the day we got there and after a night where there was a storm and the clouds stayed the next day, this really is a 'Castle in the Clouds'! going hiking the trails the next morning with all the mountain cloud mist/fog was so surreal and felt like an adventure!

Small cons: Park is small though, so fair warning that you might be bored and run out of things to do after a day or two here. Also, the only dining option is the hotel restaurant - which like i said, is just decent, and for any other food options your closest bet is driving down the mountain to Mena; don't expect anything fancy, but at least there's more variety which is welcome.

Overall, this hotel's cons can be easily ignored and the experience you get out of being up there is just so worth it! Definitely something everyone should experience at least once! We'll be back to see the forest views...