shakamak state park

we stayed at shakamak for a few days to fish and relax. we loved our little cabin and didn't want to leave. the pool is great and felt refreshing. we didn't get a chance to rent a paddleboat this time and plan to do that next trip. the prices are very family friendly and the park is very clean.

This is a great place to camp. The campground feels like nature. You can hear bird song every morning and into the day. The park is clean and tidy. The staff is friendly and helpful. The roads are good and there are sites adequate for fairly large RVs, with foliage between you and your neighbors. The amenities are plentiful. We camped there the week of Memorial Day weekend so there were many children, all having fun, but all well supervised and respectful of others. If you're there between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the pool and the nature center will be open, as will be the café. The pool is great. It has a long, curved slide and a pretty fountain. The nature center was one of our favorite places. They give interesting talks and we got to watch the snake being fed. They had tadpoles, turning into frogs and fish, caught by some of the campers, were put in a fish tank. Barbara, at the visitor center, was delightful as well as knowledgeable. There are many things to see and do in the summer. This is a superior place to camp.

Excellent camping facility, great swimming pool, cabins are great, can't beat this park for family vacations. fishing is also good with several cleaning stations.

Shakamak SP may not have all the bells and whistles of other Indiana parks but it is still a great destination for a day trip of hiking. My husband and I come here often for a walk on one of the four well marked trails. There are stables and bridle trails for the horsey set. We've not used the pool but in season it always appears sparkling clean. There is no lodge or camp store so bring your own snacks.

I grew up close by and was very fortunate to have this beautiful state park as a backyard playground. Fishing, boating, hiking, swimming, camping in cabins or campgrounds. The newly built cabins are absolutely gorgeous with lake and wooded views. You can't go wrong here and you won't want for activities.

We had a wonderful camping experience during our first and definetly not our last trip to Shakamak State Park. We hiked on one of the trails, which was nice but we mostly enjoyed the easy bike riding around the entire park...great park for family bike rides. The pool area was great as this park has one of the nicer pools I've seen as far as parks go. Although our weekend did consist of 1 rainy day, our site #12 was perfect...mostly gravel and had very good drainage...there was no water at all standing on out site after storms passed. Hopefully next time will be able to enjoy the lakes. Shower house was nice, clean, and satisfactory.

Of all the campgrounds we've been to in five states, this was the worst. First, we were there over the Fourth of July holiday, so you can expect something of a zoo anywhere. But even taking that generously into account, this was still our worst experience ever.We got there just after a hard rain. Once we found our postage-stamp-sized lot, we realized we didn't need to worry about having no lake view (I dont think any of the sites do), because we had two of our very own private lakes right there on our site. There basically was no pad to park the pop-up on, and thus also no drainage.My husband later remarked that it was a good thing we'd gotten there after the rain, otherwise he would have positioned the pop-up normally, only to discover later that the door led to a small lake. But since we already knew where the lakes were, he was able to position the trailer rather oddly so we would not have to step in too deep water to get in or out of the pop-up.And speaking of water, there isn't any in the individual sites. Yet this campgrounds was more expensive than many of the others we've stayed at.The worst part, though, was although there were presumably quiet hours, no one observed them during the four days we were there. Worse still, people did not put their children to bed! Children were running and screaming all over the place as late as midnight and after. One unfortunate woman across from us couldn't get her small child to go to sleep due to all the noise.During the day, I didn't need to listen to the radio for weather reports, as I could hear them from either the site next to us or the one across from us (they seemed to take turns) just as clearly as if I had a radio on with the volume up in my own kitchen. (Fortunately, I didn't hate their choice of music.). This campground is not as jammed up as, say, a KOA would be, but for every one site at other campgrounds, they had two squeezed in the same size area in this one.On the third night, I had managed to drift off around midnight, since the kids and adults had miraculously quieted down, when I was awoken by some guy yelling "boo" to his female companions just outside my bed. I don't know why, but that is the kind of place it was. Many people had no consideration for others.There were also more kids at this campground than two or three normal campgrounds - several of them on their bikes outside our trailer at any given moment; that's how dense it was. I like kids, and enjoy the laughter of kids having fun. But not screaming at midnight! So . . . I would say that, in our experience anyway, this was more of a party type campground rather than an enjoy-nature type of campground. If you want a place where there are no quiet hours, and you don't have to bother supervising your children or putting them to bed at a reasonable hour, this may be the place for you.

We have taken several day trips to Shakmak. The trails are excellent. The pool area is very nice, clean & well staffed. We rented a paddle boat & took our kids out on the lake. The park has life vest for use. They have a pony for kids to ride and saddle horses for longer trail rides. We will go back.

This is the best public pool I have been to in a long time. The water is clean, the staff is friendly, and they have slides and fountains. Kids and adults of all ages. They also have hiking, fishing, camping, and more.

We stayed in cabin #9 for 3 nights (April 2013) mainly because that was one of the few cabins we could get last minute. It was fine. You can't beat the price! However, the shower leaked and the floor had to be mopped by someone else while you were taking a shower. The shower nozzle was awful only spraying a mist, but at least it was hot water. There is no electric heating and no microwave. We did find a few roaches and one tic in the cabin. There is a gap between the outside and inside on the south end of the cabin so you can see daylight. It wasn't awful and we made due but I would pick another cabin next time. It was nice to have the tiny town of Jasonville so close in case you forgot something. Word of warning...get to the office before 4pm if you want to rent last minute because even though the state park website says you can't check in until 4pm...the Shakamak office closes at 4pm....it doesn't make much sense. Overall, Shakamak is a nice state park.

The facilities are pretty good for a camp, but the facilities haven't changed since I was a kid over 40 years ago. A pool within the camp, better restroom facilities, and maybe adding some color to the landscape. i know its 'nature' but this area needs a lift. plant some forsythia, weigela, lilacs, anything with color would be nice!

This was the perfect place for our wedding reception. The mess hall with the old fireplace, the large open space with beams overhead, and fully equipped kitchen were everything we needed. The cabins were also close for out of town guests to stay. They did not mind bringing their own bedding, but the ones who did had an easy drive back to Indianapolis. Great scenery. I would recommend it to other couples or for a prom.

We stayed in the campground in July 2012. This was a very well kept park with large sites. The playground was nice and the site we were on had plenty of fine gravel, which was very nice when the downpour came one day. My only complaint about the camp site was that there was a dumpster at the front of our site - on our campsite. It wasn't as big a problem as I feared, but would really have preferred that it be placed across the street by the bathroom. A nice short trail from the campground to a fishing pier made it easy to take the kids fishing together for a short while.Plenty of fishing opportunities and lakes to canoe in. The fishing time was wonderful, even though I didn't catch much. There were plenty of bluegill, etc for the kids to catch. The swimming area was nice and seemed up to date. Diving well, deep water slide-chute and a water slide were nice. We didn't do any hiking while we were here, but I believe that there's plenty of trails. Nature center is by the pool and the naturalist took the time to feed the fish and turtles while we were there, which made the kids happy. Concessions were available at the pool.The camp store could have been better stocked. Not far in to Jasonville, though, if you forgot something. Horse stables are on site as well as boat rental. Recreational opportunities abound. Indiana State Parks are wonderful and are so often overlooked.

I have camped here, stayed in the family cabins, and stayed in the rent a camp. I highly reccomend this park. It is rarely crowded has a great pool and great fishing in the lakes. A top notch place to stay for some outdoor fun!!