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Renovated Queen Wilhelmina Lodge reopens

Queen Wilhelmina State Park’s completely remodeled lodge is open for overnight guests starting Wednesday.
Queen Wilhelmina State Park’s completely remodeled lodge is open for overnight guests starting Wednesday.

QUEEN WILHELMINA STATE PARK -- When the first hotel opened atop Rich Mountain as a railway-era resort in 1898, it featured a lavish suite intended for the Dutch queen.

"The three-story lodge became known as the 'Castle in the Sky,'" according to the Queen Wilhelmina State Park brochure. "Since the railroad was largely financed by Dutch interests, the new resort was named in honor of Holland's young Queen Wilhelmina. A royal suite was set aside for her use in the vain hopes that she would pay a visit to the area."

The monarch never showed up. And that property, perched on Arkansas' second highest summit 2,681 feet above sea level, operated for only a dozen years before closing and falling into ruin. A state park lodge erected in 1963 burned to the ground in 1973 and was replaced in 1975.

Now the Ouachita Mountains site along the verdant Talimena Trail near the Oklahoma border is welcoming a newly improved Queen Wilhelmina Lodge.

Guests can stay starting Wednesday after a $9.6 million total renovation that took three years under the aegis of the Borne Firm Architects for the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. The work increased the size of the outdated 1970s layout by almost 50 percent while updating most amenities and adding a few more.

Parks and Tourism isn't calling this latest incarnation a castle. But the sweeping views provided by new picture windows over some of Arkansas' most scenic terrain might impress even a queen or king. We commoners can expect to be suitably dazzled.

The lodge, with its updated restaurant and panoramic public rooms, is a good reason to visit or revisit Queen Wilhelmina State Park -- but hardly the only one.

For youngsters, as well as grown-ups young at heart, the 460-acre park operates a miniature railway that takes riders along a track running 11/2 miles from the aptly named Mountain Glory Station. There's also a miniature golf course.

The park's hiking trails include one intriguingly called Lover's Leap. It stretches a mile, with difficulty listed as "easy to strenuous." The first third is "a nice stroll along the north slope of Rich Mountain. With bridges, stairs and benches to rest on, you can easily make the gentle climb to the wooden overlook and be rewarded with a panoramic view."

Then the trail "is a little more difficult due to elevation changes, rocky areas and steep slopes." Eventually it "descends along the south face of the mountain through the rich hardwood forest and back to the south side of the lodge. The climb up to the lodge may be strenuous."

Park signs, at the 41-space campsites and elsewhere, remind visitors that black bears inhabit this stretch of the Ouachitas. That's meant as a warning, because bears (like most other wildlife) are meant to be viewed from a distance.

But it's also an alert that there might be an ursine sighting, as was the case on a recent drive from the lodge toward Oklahoma on the Talimena Trail. Around a bend in the sinuous two-lane highway, an adult bear was crossing the road to get to the other side. The wildlife spotting was lagniappe to the viewing of Queen Wilhelmina's 21st-century castle in the sky.

Queen Wilhelmina State Park is located 13 miles west of Mena on Arkansas 88. For park information, call (479) 394-2863 or visit queenwilhelmina.com.

For Queen Wilhelmina Lodge reservations, call (800) 264-2477. Rates are $95 per night for a room with one king or two queen beds. Rooms with a king bed and spa bath are $125. Rooms with a king bed, spa bath and fireplace are $145. Suites accommodating four people are $165. Park officials report strong lodge business for summer and the October-November fall foliage period.

Weekend on 06/25/2015

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