Shakamak State Park is considered one of Indiana's more rustic state parks with a strong focus on…read morecamping and fishing within the park. Shakamak includes three man-made lakes within its boundaries offering 400 acres of lakes along with an aquatic center for family activities. Shakamak was dedicated on Sept. 3, 1928 with land donated by the counties of Clay, Greene, and Sullivan. It's believed the name was chosen by the park's founders and is an Indigenous word meaning "river of the long fish" meant to describe the nearby Eel River. The word is believed to be either from the Delaware (Lenape) or Kickapoo Indians. The first lake was created by stopping up a 5-foot sewer. The other two lakes were added in following years including Lake Kickapoo (30 years later). Prior to these lakes being made, there were no lakes in the area. Richard Lieber stocked the lakes with bass and began what would really make this particular park noteworthy. The Civilian Conservation Corps also helped develop the park from 1933-42. Shakamak State Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. In terms of camping, Shakamak has 8 sites with full hook-ups, 114 electric sites, 42 non-electric sites, and on Maple Loop there are 10 sites (2 are paved and accessible). There's group camping, a dumping station, and a camp store. There are also cabins - I generally find them not very accessible. Shakamak offers picnic areas w/shelters (must be reserved), a nature center, a boat launch ramp, fishing/ice fishing, hiking trails, paddleboat/rowboat/kayak rentals, a recreation building that can be rented, a tennis area, a basketball court, and a swimming pool/water slide area. Shakamak is about 3 miles southeast of Jasonville in Sullivan County. Shakamak has seven marked trails with five being labeled as moderate in difficulty. The other two, both under two miles, are considered easy, multi-use trails for hiking or biking - these two trails have no stairs and white-tailed deer have been known to be seen on them. The longest trail is just under four miles and will take you by Lake Shakamak. The multi-use trails are for the most part accessible, though you are out in nature and I generally recommend not going on trails alone. That said, I've been able to do just fine on both trails. This isn't a real touristy state park except for those who want to fish and hike. That's the real selling point here. For those needing accessibility, it's definitely possible but will involve pre-planning. As some have noted, upkeep here is somewhat hit-and-miss. It's a beautiful park, however, my experience has been it's fairly lightly staffed compared to some other parks. That said, my recent visit things were in good shape and I know DNR has been really working on our less popular parks. I tend to see Shakamak as a less appreciated park that is definitely worth a visit for nature lovers and for hikers who want a chance to see wildlife. I've never not seen wildlife on the trails here.

Shakamak is much bigger than I anticipated. My husband, dogs, and I got a lovely 4-mile hike in…read morewith great views of Lake Kickapoo, one of the three lakes. With two more lakes and six more trails to explore, it appears we'll have to make another trip in the future. I look forward to it!

Food was great!! Service very fast…read more I had a Lemon pepper chicken harvest salad with poppyseed dressing, and it was one of the best salads I've had in Sullivan!! With pecans, apples, and dried cranberries. Lettuce was fresh. Delicious. My husband had a Rueben and seasoned fries - both were great! Iced tea was fantastic!! Definitely entering the rotation of regular places to eat in town!!!

I'm only giving four stars based off of our previous visits being so good, based solely on today's…read morevisit it would be at most two stars. We normally spend less than half of what I was charged today. We walked in and asked to claim a lane (see pricing on pic) but the gentleman working today who I've never seen or dealt with before insisted we give him a number of games to bowl instead of the hourly rate we normally pay when the younger guy is working. We also normally pay when we're finished but he had us pay before we began bowling. We played for 4 hours. At the hourly rate that would have been $70, instead I paid $90 for five games. Not sure why he insisted on a number of games instead of the hourly rate. The sign doesn't say that the hourly rate isn't available on Sundays. The lane we were at was missing a seat instead it was just the metal piece. Which was very inconvenient for four bowlers and only two usable seats. And this place was supposedly just remodeled. We went to order food. We asked what was in their fruit bowls, we were told strawberries, pineapple, peaches, and apple slices. We ordered two fruit bowls, a Philly cheesecake, pretzel sticks, and four drinks. They brought up the pretzel sticks almost immediately, then they only brought out three drinks and said I didn't order a fourth so we paid for another drink as I didn't have an itemized receipt, just the total. Then they brought out the Philly cheesesteak. We waited several more minutes and still no fruit bowls, so we went and asked and were told they forgot. They brought out two very small bowls of just canned sliced peaches. Nothing the way the fruit bowls were explained to us. The fruit bowls were $4. $4 for a small bowl that had maybe seven slices in it was ridiculous and they were slimy. We were told that they didn't realize they were out of the other fruits. No apologies, no offer to replace it with something else, no discounts, nothing. My daughters were disappointed so we ordered something else for them instead. They couldn't eat the peaches due to the sliminess. And who wants to pay $8 for less peaches you'd get in a whole can for less than $2 at the store? The Philly was dry and had very little onion. It was more peppers than anything. Normally they're really good. The lane kept messing up and not counting knocked down pins or getting stuck and we had to have the employees fix it. You can't manually change scores from the lane as it's restricted so we had to wait in line to get employees to correct the score from the counter. Most bowling alleys have the ability to adjust scores yourself, but not Maddog's. It was quite annoying and we just gave up having the scores corrected for accuracy. The arcade took my daughter's money but didn't give her an item. It was one of the machines that you pay for an item and get it not that you have to win one. She told an employee and they didn't care. After it slowed down, the employee started being nice and kind and even made a few jokes with us which was nice. So his attitude earlier on might have been just from being overwhelmed and stressed. If he hadn't, the amount of stars would be less. We also informed him that we were military but he either didn't hear me or something. Looking at the receipts and total he charged us for five games, we weren't given the military rate. We had our military ID's and paid with bank cards from a well known bank that only does business with military service members and their families. I think the guy who normally is working when we go is possibly named Brian? He's always incredibly friendly and accommodating. He's another reason why I'm giving more stars than I would after everything that happened today if I was solely basing the review off of today's visit. Overall it's not a bad place. And usually the employees are friendly and food is better. I'm hoping they'll fix the broken seats and issues with pins and balls constantly getting stuck. I'm also hoping today was just a very unusual off day and that future visits will be better, if it is anything like today again, we won't be back again.

Hillcrest is a nice neighborhood park with lots of mature trees providing shade. The main features…read moreare the disc gold course and the dog park on the high ground. There is also a playground in the middle of the lawn area with a couple other pieces (swings and a slide) scattered around the park. There is a common parking lot in the middle and a small shelter area, but it didn't look big enough to host a large gathering. The dog park was fenced and okay, but looked like it was repurposed. There was a shelter inside the fenced area, but it didn't have a lot of activities/challenges for the dogs other than to just run around. (No training type equipment/obstacles.) The park is fine for the neighborhood to enjoy some fresh air and take small kids or pets. Otherwise, there are more parks to choose from in Vincennes. Review #2981

On the eastern side of Vincennes, a neighborhood park covers a narrow stretch of land that serves…read moreas a buffer between the houses and Kelso Creek. The park is spread out with basketball and baseball fields (modestly developed) on the north end with the playground and shelter in the middle to southern end. There is also undeveloped lawn in between the equipment and to the southern end. There is a limited amount of pull in parking on each end and some street parking along the length as well. Nothing special here, just an average park, good for the neighborhood, but not worth a special trip to visit. Review #2964

Decent park but there's been times where I've seen used condoms in the parking lot. Where as…read moreanother time there was a set of women's clothes all around the hut area where the tables are. Also a lot of times there has been many times cars have been down at the park at night.

Okay but WHY was our first escape room experience this intense…read more We had the BEST time!! It was way harder than we expected (in the best way), but we were hooked from start to finish. Every clue had us thinking, second-guessing, and celebrating like we just won a championship when we figured something out Honestly, the best part? Watching my teens step up, work together, and actually want to solve something as a team. No phones, just brains, teamwork, and a whole lot of "WAIT--I GOT IT!!" moments Such a fun family memory and definitely something we'll be talking about for a while. Safe to say... we're already planning our next challenge 10/10 recommend if you want something fun, different, and actually engaging for the whole family!

This was soooooooo fun, me and my friends and their mom went and had never been to a escape room…read morebefore! We were able to finish with 7 seconds left!! I 100% recommend this for all ages!

Clean & Pristine. Great place to roll! Very stylish & a good cafe for food a bit more upscale…read morethan your regular Alley, b/c it's a part of Vincennes University.

On the north end of Bicknell, the park is mainly an athletic sports park with baseball, basketball,…read moreand a soccer field. A small playground has a few pieces to entertain kids not interested in watching the team sports. There is small shelter available as well. Basically, it's a flat field without shade trees that gives organized sports a place to be played. If you are looking for a playground, the south side park is much better. Review #2982

This neighborhood park fills an entire block west of downtown Vincennes. The park has many aspects…read moreincluding a children's playground, a fitness park, a skate park, basketball courts, and volleyball. There are no restrooms or water fountains that I saw. Parking is limited to the street next to the park. Although there are mature shade trees, there aren't many places for adults to sit while watching their children play. Some of the playground equipment is showing a lot of weathering as well. It looked safe, but could use some attention to clean it up. Review #2977