St. Joe River
Introduction
The St Joe River is the largest river in the area and provides 150 miles of paddling from Union Lake in Branch County to where it joins Lake Michigan in St Joseph, MI. The river appears to be paddlable further upstream, but I have not scouted it as of yet. The river provides a variety of paddling environments from smaller river like sections upstream of Colon, MI, to more medium like rivers in various section between dams, and to large river or lake like areas above many of the dams. In addition, there is the white water park in South Bend, IN: http://sbpark.org/parks/east-race-waterway/. Like many large rivers there is development along most of the river, but there are still some areas where development has not occurred and the river still makes for some very nice paddling. The map below contains about 64 access sites.
Additional Resources and Attachments
USGS River Gauge Level: USGS 04096405 ST. JOSEPH RIVER AT BURLINGTON, MI
USGS 04097500 ST. JOSEPH RIVER AT THREE RIVERS, MI
USGS 04099000 ST. JOSEPH RIVER AT MOTTVILLE, MI
USGS 04101000 ST. JOSEPH RIVER AT ELKHART, IN
USGS 04101500 ST. JOSEPH RIVER AT NILES, MI