Queen Wilhemina State Park

Our Campsite at Queen Talhemina State Park

Dog's Eyeview at Sunrise

Lodge in the Distance at Sunrise

View from Campground

There’s a lodge at Queen Wilhelmina State Park. It’s a nice looking place overlooking the valley. I believe I read that it sits atop the highest peak. That seems to be the case. That's probably why it's extremely windy here!
We drove into the campground to pick out a couple of campsites. We found that they have a very nice “bath house” here, so we chose sites near that.

We had to go to the lodge to register. There was a man out front guarding the new crosswalk that had just been painted. I had already driven through here once, so this was the second time he had to guide me around the crosswalk.

They have a dining area in the lodge that looked very inviting. It was about 4 p.m. when we got there. We decided to have dinner there about 7 p.m. The ladies at the registration desk were very nice and very informative. They told us about the many places to visit in Arkansas. Who knew??? They have a lot of state parks. I think they said there are 52. Some are just tiny places though. I believe my campsite, with hookups, was $18 or thereabouts.

When we went to the lodge for dinner, there were quite a few diners already in there. One of the waitresses had told us about a group that was meeting there at the lodge. We were hoping to avoid the "crowd", but they were there having their dinner at the same time. There actually weren't that many of them.

One lady had a plate full of fried chicken livers and she offered us a few. I had one. It was pretty yummy, but it would have been better dipped in some sort of dressing. I ordered fried shrimp. They were out of baked potatoes, so they served me two huge scoops of mashed potatoes with white gravy. One huge scoop was plenty. We had already served ourselves a salad from the salad bar before our dinners arrived. We were a little disappointed in the food, but it was tasty enough and we didn't have to fix it ourselves. (I think I forgot to mention that Judy fixed a delicious dinner the night before. She grilled vegetables and a steak. Mmmm!!! It was much better than the dinner at the lodge.)

We opted for separate sites here, so we would each have a nice view of the valley, albeit through the trees. It’s good that they’re bare or we might not see much of anything. It’s a hazy view from here, but it’s nice. The wind is blowing really hard. It’s a hunker down sort of day. I think I’ll hang out here for a while, take a shower, then head toward Hot Springs National Park. They say it’s right downtown, but Judy found that there are campsites there. She’ll be able to get a site at half price, since she’s older. : ) I guess that’s where we’ll meet up later on. There are tours of the hot springs, which sound interesting, but I don’t know if I’ll make it there early enough. I’ll try to get in on a tour, now that I know we can camp right there.

There’s a Pioneer Cemetery in this area that we could hike to, but the weather is not very conducive to that. We passed a turnout for the cemetery on the drive here, so we could possibly go back there. It sounds interesting, but I’m not sure whether or not I want to take the time for that. I prefer pioneer cemeteries with my relatives in them. The walk would be nice, if it wasn't so windy.

Well… I better fix some breakfast and get on with my day. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll have time to post pictures. We’ll see.