Lake Whitney State Park

I legitimately tried to rate this less than one star, unfortunately yellowpages would not allow me. Do you enjoy having random men wander through your campsite late at night? Do you enjoy seeing nothing but an ugly, smelly lake surrounded by factories? Do you enjoy not enjoying yourself? If so, you have found the right place!



I should have realized that this park is awful when numerous more well known state parks were fully booked and Lake Whitney had 53 available campsites. Unfortunately, I didn't fully think it through and ended up spending a miserable night camping in this godforsaken place. We noticed signs saying picking up wood was frowned upon so we attempted to go buy wood from the park ranger Christopher Bishop. He told us it was (5 minutes) too late and we couldn't buy any wood. So, we decided to just pick up some wood from the ground to get the camp fire going, because camping without a campfire just seems wrong. Within 5 minutes, park ranger Bishop had parked his car out of sight up the road, crept through the woods and appeared beside our fire with citations in hand for "illegal gathering of firewood". We apologized profusely and doused our fire. This meant nothing to Ranger Bishop because his first priority was to harass and annoy instead of protect and serve.



We now found ourselves cold, in the dark and without a fire. So, we decided to warm ourselves with the assistance of alcohol. Apparently, drinking at a state park is also frowned upon, even though there was not a soul (besides apparently Ranger Bishop) within a half mile of our camping ground and we were not making any noise. Not even thirty minutes later, Park Ranger Bishop was back in our campsite, pouring out our drinks, and lecturing us about the rules of state parks. His lecture dragged on for nearly 30 minutes before he finally decided to leave us alone. At this point we retired to our tent; cold, dejected, and hungry because we were planning on cooking our meals over the campfire. The next morning when we awoke we decided that we did not wish to spend another night in this terrible place. We had already paid for the second night upon entering the state park so we asked for a refund. They refused to give us a refund, claiming their credit card reader had broken. Luckily, I was able to convince my credit card company that this was a fraudulent charge.



Frankly, this whole state park seems fraudulent. The "lake" was dirty, the "great fishing" was nonexistent, and it was certainly not an enjoyable or friendly environment. If you are planning a camping trip, I would recommend crossing Lake Whitney off of your list and going someplace where the employees are not draconian imbeciles.

Loved it.
Plenty of shade
lots of parking options.
People were friendly