My nieces + nephews and I decided to go on a hike on Saturday. Well, when we got there, they…read morechanged their minds and wanted to go home and get cozy. Not happening. So I took them out into the woods kicking and screaming ;) Auntie of the year! We compromised and made it a shorter hike but I enjoyed it! The trail we went on stayed mostly on the river and just slightly into the woods. Next time we'll go all in! The trails are well maintained and entry is only $4.

Reserved a shelter for our 30 year high school reunion. Best decision ever. There were plenty of…read moretables for us to feel comfortable. Group of about 50 people. We were close to a playground in Berta Shelter and restrooms were directly behind us. Restrooms were clean. Very pleased!

While there's plenty of disc-golf fun to experience "north of the border", ours was a pleasant…read moresummer family stroll even the faint-hearted "hiker" could complete. With multiple loops to select, you can make this a 30-min or hour-plus trek. Pack in lunch to enjoy time at the pavilion, or just focus on the shady meandering from the trail you choose. We had babies and elementary, high school and college kids on this trip. It wasn't hard to keep up, and mostly flat paths gave us just the right amount of cardio. I'd enjoy a return visit for a run, and you mostly have double-wide pedestrian paths or wider the entire route. Finish up with some playground time for the kids if everybody's not tuckered out from the walk. Thanks to the in-laws for helping us discover this respite, and we'll look forward to a return to see what we missed this time.

I love this park. The woods are great and a hike here in the fall rewards you with nice fall…read morecolors set off by the St. Joe River below....the park is situated on a nice block off overlooking River below. I'm not much of a disc golfer but folks play the course a lot. You can also hike into St. Patrick's Park that abuts Mad Bert and is mostly at River level, so you'll get a downhill hike to there.

Now have two of these reels and love them the last one took long time to get because of this…read morebullshit corona virus but now have so good love them they make it fun for me to fish again thanks muchand like 5stsr to them

From the owner: We manufacture and distribute adaptive fishing devices for physically challenged individuals we…read moresell electric fishing reels for one armed individuals and any other disabled sportsman.

Pinhook finally got an update. They added a very nice blacktop path for walking, some dog…read moreamenities, a new boat launch, and some new fishing piers. New playground equipment as well. Theres been a little bit better landscaping/ lawncare, and they have added new signage for handicapped access/ parking.

Clean park. I was there for a wedding and it was a beautiful day. The park was clean. The river…read morewas delightful and peaceful. There was a small playground. There was also a building on the premise, but I did not go into the building.

As a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, I always cringe when people refer to it as Notre…read moreDame University. That's kind of a personal peeve--although you'd be surprised at how many really well educated people in academia make this mistake--but it's also kind of ridiculous because (a) I'm normally not a pretentious person and (b) the official name of the school isn't the University of Notre Dame. The official name is the University of Notre Dame du Lac. For those of you whose French is rusty, that means "the University of Our Lady of the Lake." "The Lake"? Which lake? Well, despite the fact that the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus and the Grotto are far more famous landmarks, Notre Dame has two lakes at the far north end of campus. I'm not sure whether they were man-made or whether they used to be one lake (which would explain why it's not "Our Lady of the Lakes"), but I'm glad they exist and that there are two of them. This review is of St. Mary's Lake, which is the western one. It's a little bit smaller than St. Joseph's Lake, but the main differences between the lakes are that the terrain around St. Mary's Lake is flatter and has less foliage and that it freezes during the winter. (I'll explain in a future review why St. Joseph's Lake doesn't freeze.) I love this lake. When I first visited Notre Dame in 1993, I walked around it a few times, saw all these students jogging around it, and saw people playing chess at a bench on its north (?) side. Although I wanted to come to Notre Dame for many other reasons, that trip cemented my desire. Besides being spectacular in myriad ways, Notre Dame is a beautiful place. I say this as someone who hates most of its architecture. Despite some of the monstrosities that the university has erected, especially recently, the natural beauty of Northern Indiana shines through, and St. Mary's Lake is a good example of that. When I ended up here in grad school (having officially been denied admission three times so far--I would also be denied a fourth time), I walked around St. Mary's Lake a bunch of times. In fact, I bet I circled the lake more times in September and October 2001 than I did the rest of the time I was at Notre Dame. Grad school is busy, and I found so many other unique campus landmarks that reinforced my connection to this physical place. It's not that I began to dislike St. Mary's Lake; it's that I began to appreciate other things as well. I never did play chess with anyone on that bench, but I did have some pretty amazing conversations with people while walking around the lakes, and it was always fun each spring to watch the ducks and geese showing off their offspring.

Used to fish here when i was little and mom worked on campus. Great memories. Fishing ok. Campus…read morehas changed. More uptight.

Leeper Park always reminds me of Will. And kind of of Sheila, but mainly of Will. Will was sick…read more Esther and I visited him. Often. We got stuff from his apartment when he was in the hospital. This was long before Will moved to Philadelphia. This was long before Erin O. met Will. This was long before Erin O. told me about meeting Will, which wasn't long after Erin O. told me about meeting Aaron. I think Erin O. thought I was trying to set her up with Aaron, but I wasn't. Or maybe Aaron thought so. Aaron is Canadian and that's awesome. I was sort of trying to set Erin O. up with Will, but it didn't take, and that's fine. All of this was long before Erin O. married Jose. The park is spectacular. You can drive through it. You can feed ducks. It goes on and on, kind of like a September to remember, though not quite like a December to remember. Visit this park. Please. I will next time I visit South Bend with Esther, which could be in September. Or October. Hopefully, it will either be unseasonably warm or unseasonably cold. South Bend is best when the weather's not like it's supposed to be, either way. And when I lived in South Bend, I used to wonder whether Leeper park would have leepers if it had sand. You know, leepers, like in the Legend of Zelda? But those are leevers, and I made a mental fool of myself in my own mind for years.

Leeper is nice...the park os situated on either side of 31 on the south side of the bridge. There…read moreis a tennis complex on one side, where they offer an excellent and affordable childrens tennis program, as well as tennis for adults. It was recently remodeled and is in great shape. Near the tennis complex is a playground, a duck pond and some picnic tables. Across 31 there is park with a raceway island and a small beach. Its a nice place to take a walk and popular for salmon and steelhead fishing in the fall. Theres a garden and a log cabin replica on the east side of the park as well. The river in this location is fairly shallow wth rapids, my kids like to wade in the shallows when the water is low.

Beautifully laid out. A great addition to downtown South Bend. It has nice clean bathrooms on…read moresite, places to sit with great views of the river lights at night.

The University of Notre Dame is up to its old shenanigans again. Unless you didn't know, although I…read moreand thousands of loyal Notre Dame fans associate the university with the City of South Bend, Indiana, the university actually lies just to the north of South Bend. It's in unincorporated St. Joseph County, Indiana, and its official place name and mailing address is Notre Dame, Indiana. What does this have to do with Seitz Park? I'm getting there. Let's start with the shenanigans. The South Bend neighborhood immediately south of the university's main entrance was much more rustic and worn down when I was a grad student there. All the lots were small, and most of them had modest one- and two-story single-family houses, which were mostly built in the 1930s and '40s and were largely affordable. Sometime in the late 2000s, Notre Dame started buying up these properties, both those that were empty lots and those with houses still standing, and building McMansions on the sites. This has greatly changed the character of the neighborhood. Sure, it looks "nicer," if you can call it that, but no one who could afford to live in the neighborhood before could afford any of these new gigantic residences. Supposedly, they were built in order to attract faculty members to Notre Dame, but gentrification is usually all about the money, and I'm sure Notre Dame ended up making a killing through the gentrification of the Northeast Neighborhood, even if it lost money in the short term. Again, what does that have to do with Seitz Park? Well, Seitz Park has been closed since 2019 because the University of Notre Dame wanted to diversify its renewable-energy portfolio. Notre Dame offered the City of South Bend at least $1 million toward the reconstruction and improvement of Seitz Park, with the City of South Bend agreeing to close the park while Notre Dame spends $27.1 million to construct hydroelectric turbines beneath the park site in the river. The park was supposed to be closed for a year, but four years later, the city is still waiting for its public space back. All 2.5 megawatts of the new electricity generated by the project will go to Notre Dame (seven percent of its total usage); South Bend won't get a single watt of electricity when all is said and done. Mind you, this is city property within the City of South Bend proper. As usual, Notre Dame uses its considerable money, clout, and prestige to throw its weight around, and God forbid South Bend should have any say on what Notre Dame does on its own property. I hope the park returns soon. The Riverlights Light Forest was pretty cool to see, both from within the park itself and driving across one of the nearby bridges. The fish ladder is also a must-see--hopefully it will remain, and the new power plant won't kill too many fish.

St. Joseph's Lake Recently a really cool nice Yelper John…read moreS. of San Francisco Communicated with me regarding my posts on places on and around the University of Notre Dame Campus. He is amazing with so much information that has helped me. He's an Encyclopedia of Notre Dame! I'm going by my senior citizen memories and old photos. He geared me to the St. Joseph's Lake page for my incorrectly posted Lake photos. That being said I love being out in nature and around bodies of water. When my daughter and I spent time together at the university a walk to the lake was a great escape. I'm sure during my many visits in four years I visited other lakes near the campus. If you live in South Bend, go to the university, or you are visiting like me then by all means take in the lake activities and spend time hiking or walking around St. Joseph's Lake. Highly recommended.

I'm not sure why I didn't realize this was a separate lake the first time I visited Notre Dame when…read moreI was in high school in 1993. Or maybe I did realize it, but St. Mary's Lake just held a particular sway for me. In any case, St. Joseph's Lake is probably more beautiful than its westerly cousin--er, (unconsummated) spouse? I say "probably" because it depends on what you like. If you'd rather walk around a mostly flat path without trees obstructing your view, then St. Mary's Lake is your girl. But if you like changing elevations, paths that sometimes take strange turns, and the wonder of a mysterious island with a locked gate, then St. Joseph's Lake is your boy. Yes, I know, both lakes have islands; and technically, St. Mary's Lake has more of them, but one of St. Joseph's Lake's islands is connected to the shore by a footpath, and there's this weird gate that's usually locked, although if you don't mind getting wet, it's pretty easy to get around. (Believe me, I know.) If the weather's particularly nice, you can rent a boat and sail around the lake. I never did this, but when my brother was in town for my graduation, he really wanted to. The lake is strange during the winter because it doesn't freeze. Why not? Well, Notre Dame has its own power plant (coal-fired, unfortunately), which is cooled by St. Joseph's Lake. After the water is used, it is pumped back into the lake, which ensures that the water is always too warm to freeze. This causes quite a lot of confusion for the local waterfowl. Normally, ducks and geese fly south for the winter, and this is largely the case for Notre Dame's ducks and geese. But even in the middle of winter, you'll find some ducks swimming around St. Joseph's Lake, and I often wonder whether this ruins their natural instincts. I'm not very athletic, but if I were, I would be one of those people who run around this lake and then St. Mary's Lake in what seems like a decently challenging but also relaxing jog. If you're a woman and you choose to run around St. Joseph's Lake, you should probably bring some mace along. I've never felt unsafe walking around the lake, even in the middle of the night in really cold weather, but it is kind of spooky, and there are a lot of places to hide.

Situated on both sides of Riverside drive. The side near the river has a boat launch and a few…read morebenches, the other side is a fair sized park with pavilions, grills, picnic tables, basketball, playground equipment etc.