Shamrock Park — Hotel in Berrien Township

This was our second and last camping trip to this place. There are some pros and cons. Pros are grocery stores and gas station is close by if you need ice or forgotten supplies. Literally pull out onto the high way and go right. It’s just over the bridge. The people working the campground were friendly. Cons, we stayed in cabins. Our cabin had huge gaps around the air conditioner in the window. Beds were harder than sleeping out in a tent. We stayed in cabins because my mom and step dad are too old to do tents anymore. Cabins are right by the boat ramp. People putting boats in looked like they had zero experience putting a boat in the water. They have charter boats and they are rude as hell. We had poles in the water plenty far from the boat ramp. Boaters are very inconsiderate and seen our poles and almost ran into the lines even if they seen them. We had kayaks go right along the bank and not watching for fishing poles. One lady got wrapped in fishing line and snapped it off and almost went head on into a parked pontoon boat. That was extremely irritating as well. This guy must live there and parks the damn pontoon right where people should be able to fish. He wanted to drive the pontoon right where we had our poles in the water just to be an ass. We didn’t pull the lines in. We told him to go around. If you’re trying to fish. Don’t bother. There’s too many idiots in tubes, kayaks and boats who are very inconsiderate of people fishing. This guy kept going out and checking lines he tied off of trees. Which oh well. No one cares. But if he seen we had poles in the water he’d drive his boat close to our lines on purpose and then as he got to the boat ramp rev his engine to kick up mud towards our lines. We had to keep yelling out to people to go around our fishing lines. The people who must live in the campground that kept taking boats in and out had zero respect for us fishing and wouldn’t go around our lines. There were a few anglers putting boars in that kindly went around. Kudos to them. We appreciated that. We watched three guys try to put a pontoon in and they didn’t back far enough down the boat ramp and literally dropped the pontoon onto the boat ramp. It was quit amusing! Pretty funny. They had to push the pontoon down the boat ramp with the trailer to get it off the ramp. They went out for a bit and when they got back…… omg that was just as amusing. They didn’t back the trailer far enough into the water and instead of someone driving the boat slowly back onto the trailer and then locking the boat in place and cranking it the rest of the way in. They pulled it in with ropes. In all of your trying to have a good trip and fish. Find some place else to go. Fishing spots are very limited due to boats. People parking boats along the bank ect ect. Tent camping sites are very limited as well. It’s mostly Rv. They need to invest in docks for boats so people can fish. We even had an ass bring his dog and even seeing our poles in the water was throwing a ball into the water for his dog to fetch. We even said hey our poles are cast out. If your dog gets wrapped up and you know we have lines out there that’s your fault. By far the worse camp trip I’d ever had in 40 years. We even took videos because we just can’t make this up. If your looking for a place to sit and do nothing. Well this is the place for you. To the management of this camp site. You need to tell boaters to be more respectful of people fishing. And tell the guy who keeps parking the pontoon boat in front of his rv and taking up all that space to fish ect. Move it! The guy literally had 100 plus feet of line on an anchor in front, back and side of the damn pontoon and you can’t even cast without potentially...

We camped here for a weekend in july of 2016. We live in Indiana and like to try a new place to go every year.Saw the reviews and decided to give it a try.most reviews are correct. The owner is nice and the place is clean. Upon arriving the owner greeted me and tried to indirectly tell me that some "good Ole people " with older rv's were coming and would he next to me.I really didn't understand what he was trying to say and proceeded to my camp site.Man did I understand later what he was trying to say. Later two families in some run down barely running class A and a truck that was on its last leg pulling a 25 year old travel trailer pulled next to me....we are just middle class people that like a nice peaceful and fun and quiet weekend... Well.let me say this politically correct...these people next to us set up and even put a tent up on the site which was fine....but they stayed up until 130 in the morning talking real loud...drinking and moving vehicles around...me and my wife did not want to say anything as these people looked a bit unruly..to say the least.. Then the next day my wife walked our dog in the afternoon and she witnesses one of these people at their campsite get up and walk to the fence and urinate in the open field not more then 20 yards from where she was....again didn't want to say anything as we just wanted the weekend to end and get the heck out of there....If you ever watched wrong turn or deliverance you know what we mean...the owner also told me that these people were good Ole folk that have been coming there for years..there must of been 15 people on these 2 campsites....as more came saturday...now I understand what he was trying to say and why the campground said no vacancy and yet there was an open spot on the other side of us....these people had huge fires and I swear tried to burn a log as big as two feet round in a firepit...they had dozens of empty beer cans next to the firepit....hey camping is suppose to be fun..drinking is okay...and a fire is to...but this was extreme...me and my wife felt uncomfortable camping next to them and my fault should of asked the owner what he was trying to say when I checked in....the guy urinating in an open field in front of my wife was totally rude...no need for that ..bathrooms not that far away...we were afraid to leave our bikes and good lawn chairs out....sorry but our experience was bad...different time with different people next to us might of been a lot better..sorry trust me you had to be there....and if you were you didn't want to be there long...no need to be talking loud and being rude at 130 in the morning...I mean really loud....even with my ac on I could hear every word....this campground is a nice place and I am sure the owner is nice but he needs to enforce the rules he layed out to make it pleasant for everyone....we might try it again but next time will be cautious...If I wasn't 90 miles from home would of left after the first night.....a lot of permanents there....campground was...

Shamrock Park, Berrien Springs, MI to Lake Michigan at Silver Beach Saint Joseph, MI.

Boat launch was ideal for almost any type of boat, very good depth after a short way in. All the way to Lake Michigan the depth is good for almost any boat except the largest of em. Flow was great until about Jasper Dairy Boat Launch, after that you're padddling for every foot and the current is not really there. Hopefully not against the wind too, the wind can be a factor if it's coming at you.

Many good beaches and solid ground shallow areas to make pit stops along the way. I traveled this adventure with a seasoned kayaker, but it was still a good workout for both of us. None the less, happy to have stop offs to admire the scenery.

Passing under bridges, turtles, cranes, frogs, deer, trees soaking up the sun.. just cool ya know, kinda thing you want in an adventure. Once you've paddled your paddle off you're in St Joeph, MI and you can visit River Bend for some food on the water, or park along St Joseph River and grab some Pizza by the beach on the go.

The transition between St Joseph River and Lake Michigan is most of the time choppy, but this day it was even more up and down. Some water plopped in the boat but we traveled too far to give up now, Silver Beach was in our sites. We made it beyond the pier and around the corner on Silver Beach side of the pier, a few paddle strokes later and we're back on solid ground.

Ended up parking 1 of our trucks at Silver Beach, maybe $12 bucks to park there for the day.

Toughness level - 6/10, due to duration and stamina challenge. Nothing that's too hard navigation wise but physically it's a workout to finish in any reasonable time. We started at 1030 am and finished at 6pm. Good amount of stops too, swimming and enjoying the time. Discovered a disc golf course too directly on the river, Benton Harbor park. Very cool stop off place, picnics and disc golf course are perfect, bathroom portojohns available.

Shamrock Park, Berrien Springs, MI is a gem, great people running it. $5 bucks to park all day, that's where we launched and I'm happy we did. Good...