History of sunshine resort

Sunshine Resort is a family vacation Mobile Home and RV Park located on the “Parker Strip” portion of the Lower Colorado River. It is situated on the California side of the river approximately one and a half miles south of Parker Dam, on land leased from the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.  Swimming, waterskiing, wakeboarding, kayaking, tubing, fishing and hiking are some of the activities you can enjoy while at Sunshine.Sunshine Resort occupies approximately ten acres of riverfront land and offers the following recreational facilities:

28 RV sites with full hook-ups; 30 and 50 amp service, cable TV and Wi-Fi.

Mobile home sites 

Indoor and outdoor storage 

Sandy beach with swimming area

General store 

Restrooms and Showers

Laundry facilities

Boat ramp

Dock with Boat slips

2 Horseshoe pits

Current owners, Mike & Cheryl Charlton and family, have been vacationing at Sunshine Resort since the 1980s. Mike’s family began vacationing along the river in the 1950’s. Mike and Cheryl started in the RV section before purchasing a mobile home. All before forming Sunshine Resort, LLC with 2 other couples Clyde & Kathy Widrig, and Paul & Linda Wood, in 2001. 

Sunshine Resort began in the early 1930’s as a camp for some of the workers who were constructing Parker Dam.  

As the Dam was completed some of the workers remained and set up a primitive fishing camp. Mr. & Mrs. Shannon started a live bait operation under a large shade tree. They had a trailer for themselves and a burro in front for all to visit and befriend. The property was known as Fishing Village.

Then, approximately 1950, Les and May Allen purchased the bait business and began major construction of store, restrooms, camp sites, boat launch and boat dock. In general they made Fishing Village a very popular place for fishing and camping. Arley and Elsie Cates purchased Fishing Village in 1964 keeping the park primarily as a fishing and camping park.  Marcel and Susan Aerts fell in love with the area and purchased Fishing Village. To reflect a new image they changed the name to Sunshine Resort. They began development of the south-end of the park with full RV hook-ups and camp sites. The Aerts also redeveloped the north-end of the park with a new mobile home section along with the construction of 18 storage units and laundry facilities. In 2001 Susan Aerts decided to sell her 50% interest.