Pokagon SP is hot for cold winter fun

Indiana DNR Release:

Pokagon State Park provides many outdoor recreation opportunities during winter. If you’ve never ridden Indiana’s only refrigerated toboggan run, this is your year. If you already have, you're welcome back.

The toboggan run opens Friday, Nov. 27, and is open every weekend through the end of February. Special daily holiday hours occur during the Christmas and New Year’s season. Visit www.tobogganrun.com for more. For the first time, toboggan run gift certificates are available and can be ordered at (260) 833-2012, www.tobogganrun.com, or at the park office from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Visitors are invited to enjoy a variety of side hills on their own sleds, tubes and toboggans between trips down the park’s toboggan run. Picnic sites remain open during winter months. Park goers are encouraged to grill and enjoy campfires.

Pokagon also has 15 miles of cross-country skiing trails, and the ski rental shop is ready to go. Once there is a 6-inch base of snow, a special track setter will groom several miles of trails for a variety of skill levels. Pokagon’s ski shop is open weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ski rentals cease at 4 p.m.

When conditions permit, frozen Lake James and Lake Lonidaw provide ice fishing, ice skating, and hockey. Visitors must supply their own equipment for these activities.

Warm indoor activities include special weekday and weekend programs. The Nature Center is open weekdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Pokagon’s historic Potawatomi Inn provides a variety of guest rooms ranging from rustic to suites. The inn provides two restaurants, an indoor pool, sauna, hot tub, crafts room, activities department, a quaint library, and a lounge featuring a wood-burning fireplace. December through April, visitors may stay two consecutive nights for the price of one, Sunday through Thursday.

One of Pokagon’s five campgrounds remains open throughout the winter. Sites are plowed of snow. Water and electricity are available, and a modern, heated restroom with flush toilets and hot showers remains open.

Park entrance fees of $5 per vehicle for Indiana residents and $7 per vehicle for non-residents apply.