As I mentioned last week, one of my goals for 2019 is to travel monthly – at least a weekend trip. With a two week break from school and work, the beginning of January seemed like the perfect time to start meeting that goal!
A few days after ringing in the New Year, we went on a quick overnight adventure to Pokagon State Park in Northern Indiana. Pokagon is one of seven State Parks in Indiana that has an Inn on site, and we were lucky enough to get a room for the night during a very busy week! The location of the Inn is perfect – it’s close to the toboggan run, sits on beautiful Lake James and is minutes from outlet shopping, wineries, restaurants, and downtown Angola, Indiana.
We arrived at the Potawatomi Inn just after lunch and were pleasantly surprised to find our room was ready. We were thrilled to stay in one of the patio rooms with a gorgeous view of Lake James. In fact, I woke up early the next day to get some beautiful morning shots of the still water. The room was large with a small fridge and microwave oven. The beds were comfy and clean and it was the ideal lodging for our quick trip.
Our room was right across the hallway from the game room which contained a variety of video games, ping pong, air hockey and a new family favorite, Boccerball. None of us had ever heard of it before but we spent quite a bit of time playing – watch the short video below and you’ll get why it’s so addicting.
The Inn has an on-site restaurant perfect for enjoying a relaxing dinner so you can then spend the rest of the evening running back and forth between the sauna and hot tub – an ideal way to spend a cold and dreary night. There is also a fairly large indoor pool to enjoy. It was a super busy night at the Inn, so the restaurant was only serving a buffet and/or pizza. I’m not much of a buffet person so I split a pizza with my daughter and my husband ordered the buffet. According to him (and he’s pretty particular about eating good food), the soups, fried chicken and roast beef at the buffet were amazing. He was really impressed. We loved our garden pizza – it was loaded down with toppings and we also were able to enjoy a salad from the salad bar. Everyone left satisfied.
Pokagon is actually one of the original state parks in Indiana – number 5 and opened back in 1925. The area where it’s located is noted for its many lakes. In fact, the region is often called the 101 lakes region. This means it’s a hot destination in the summer months for boating, fishing, swimming and relaxing. Luckily for us, Pokagon State Park also offers a very exciting winter option, a quarter-mile, refrigerated toboggan run.
Even in the winter, hiking is another fun activity – and if there is snow, cross country skiing. As we didn’t have snow this time around, instead of skiing we enjoyed a quick hike down to the beach. I can imagine how fun this area would be in the summer! If this looks too cold to you, no worries, there are tons of little nooks situated around the hotel with fireplaces, comfy couches, tables for puzzles and games and lovely views.
The next morning, after a delicious buffet breakfast back at the Inn’s dining room (both hot and cold options available), we picked up our toboggan and started enjoying the fun. There are quite a few stairs to climb and the toboggans aren’t light, but the view at the top and the 35 mph ride is well worth the effort. My son wasn’t sure about the experience but when we hit the bottom his first words were “That was awesome!” I’ll call that a win for starting our 2019 travels off on the right foot! The toboggan typically runs from late November through the end of February. Normal hours are Friday 5:30 – 9:30; Saturday 10:30 – 9:00 and Sunday 11 – 5. They are open extended hours over the Christmas/ New Year’s holidays and MLK and President’s Day. Cost is an affordable $13 an hour for a 3 or 4 person sled.
There are many other fun things to do in the area so watch out for next week’s blog post where I share a sampling.
Have you ever stayed at a State Park Inn? Do you have a favorite? We visit the parks all the time to hike but this was our first overnight and it was wonderful to be right there in the midst of everything. I think it might just become a goal of ours to spend a night at each of them!
*Special thanks to the Steuben County Tourism Bureau for arranging and sponsoring our stay and toboggan run at the Inn. We enjoyed the getaway immensely. Please remember that all opinions and comments are 100% my own.*
Pokagon State Park, 450 Lane 100 Lake James, Angola, IN (260) 833-2012
Don’t forget to pin this post in case you get to Indiana in the winter:
Looks like great fun!
Pinned this for reference. I am already trying to recruit people to go down that hill with me!!
I’ll go again! It was fun – much faster than sledding!
Great job on committing to your travel goal! This looks like a fun weekend getaway. That tobagan run looks like so much fun!
Thanks! One month down – 11 to go!
Oh my, how cool is this? I’ve never been to this part of Indiana but I would love to visit there myself after seeing your awesome photos. That toboggan looks super fun! Thank you for sharing because now I have another place to add to my Indiana travel list.
Shirley, good! Indiana really has a ton to offer if you just look around.
The lodging looks so nice! We can’t wait to go, it is officially on our list
Good! You’ll enjoy it for sure!!!
That garden pizza looks delicious!
I loved all the veggies on it!
Looks like fun weekend getaway – especially that toboggan run!
It was a lot of fun – we even talked about going back next year and letting our kids each bring a friend.
This is such a great goal and state parks have so much to offer. Hopefully the government will stop this nonsense so our parks won’t be affected to badly. Love the toboggan ride.
I agree – I love State Parks – and now that I know about the Inns …
Beautiful pictures! It definitely entices me to visit 🙂
Definitely saving this for future reference. Thanks!
The toboggan sounds like so much fun! My kids would love that!
State parks are wonderful places to connect with nature. Maybe the next time you go, there’ll be enough snow to toboggan!
Oh we were able to toboggan – you don’t need snow for that. We just couldn’t cross-country ski – although today we got enough snow for it!
I went to college in Indiana for a semester and never heard of this state park. It looks like you had a lot of fun, even in the winter!
It is! A very fun way to spend some time in the cold winter!
Riding the toboggans at Pokagon State Park is on my Indiana bucket list! I’m glad to read your experience was positive. I’ll definitely be doing this!
It was fun – go early though as the lines can get really long.
We love ping pong. That is awesome that there was a game room.
I love a good game room too! We always search them out.
If I were a winter person, I’d definitely add this to our bucket list. My boys would love the toboggans!!
It is perfect for kids – and I was dressed warmly enough that I liked it too!
This looks SO fun and relaxing too! The tobaggan looks like a blast! 🙂
So fun! I love adding some activity to a relaxing visit!