“beautiful stone and log structures”
Natural lakes created by glaciers that melted 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, highlight Steuben County, which has more lakes than any other Indiana county. The park is framed by Lake James and Snow Lake, which offer abundant opportunities for boating, swimming, fishing and scenic sunsets. Pokagon is also Indiana State Parks’ winter wonderland, with cross-country ski rental, sledding, ice fishing and a twin-track toboggan run... “What a thrill!”… That's what you'll say once you've experienced the quarter-mile, refrigerated toboggan run at speeds of 35-40 mph. The toboggan run operates weekends from the Friday after Thanksgiving through February, with extended hours during the Christmas holidays. Pokagon State Park is located near Angola, just off I-69. The park was originally called Lake James State Park when proposed to be the fifth Indiana State Park in 1925. The name was changed to Pokagon State Park to acknowledge the rich Native American heritage of the state and region. Leopold and Simon Pokagon were father and son and the last two most notable leaders of the Potawatomi. The park’s Potawatomi Inn takes its name from these Native Americans, who made their home in the area. The inn, with its up-north fishing-lodge theme, is one of the Midwest’s most popular resorts and conference centers. Being one of the state’s original parks, Pokagon features the unique work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose members lived and worked at Pokagon from 1934 to 1942. The “boys of the CCC” built the beautiful stone and log structures that dot the park landscape and provide accent to the rolling wooded hills, wetlands and open meadows.
Reviews of Pokagon State Park Campground
18 people have reviewed this location
Ratings Summary
Cell Coverage
Verizon 4G/5G
Confirmed by 9 users | Last reported on November 27, 2022AT&T 4G
Confirmed by 4 users | Last reported on October 05, 2023T-Mobile 4G
Confirmed by 1 users | Last reported on July 15, 2021The winter highlight here is, of course, the toboggan run. Face your fears and flex your muscles. The toboggan run at Pokagon State Park is not for the weak bodied or weak minded. Tobogganers reach speeds of up to 40mph screaming down iced steel chutes. Super fun! Then, you must carry your 50 lb sled the 1/4 mile back - all uphill. A nice fire pit midway up is good for warming cold toes, and then you get to do it all again.
Cross country skis are available for rent at a truly inspirational lodge built in the 1930s by the CCC, where we also made s'mores in the gigantic fireplace. A nice Nature Center features live native critters and tons of taxidermy, and was filled with charming old-school exhibits on the history of Indiana and the park itself. A ranger-led nature hike out onto the frozen lake taught us about identifying animal tracks and Indiana's glacial history.
We had such a great time, we made a pact to make this an annual winter getaway. And maybe even slip in a weekend in the summer!
Beautiful ! We were just passing through Angola but it was a nice place to stop for the night ! Only thing I didn't like was they still charge you the park entrance fee on top of the camping spot. I think it should be included but that's just me
Very clean & well maintained. We really enjoyed our visit!
A favorite, pretty park with lots to do, its close to home so we go here a lot. Lake, horseback riding, nature center, bike trail, hiking trails, tour boat rides on the lake, canoe rental. Only negative is the bathrooms, they could use a bit of updating.
This state park was massive! It has year round activities that must draw huge crowds. However, we were here midweek toward the end of August and almost every camper had a whole loop to themselves. All of the staff members we encountered were exceptionally friendly and helpful.
The trails were well maintained and the lakefront was beautiful and quiet. Obviously the infrastructure of the park speaks to the fact that it gets crazy busy. I wish we’d had several days to spend here exploring the rest of the park.
Our site was at the top of a knoll, so we had to pull all the way to the top to get level. Once we were up there it was perfect. The site was big and had electric hookups. As west coasters, we enjoyed seeing the fireflies light up in the evening.
The showers and bathrooms were older but clean. The shower curtains were a little too small for the openings, which may have been problematic if we weren’t the only campers there.
We hope to come back and explore this area more at some point!
Nightly Rate: $23.00
Days Stayed: 1
Site Number: 452
Cell Coverage Rating
AT&T 4G
Date of stay 8/15/2018 to 8/19/2018. We had a puddle form in our camp site. It dissipated after the rain stopped. But you might want to search and be careful about any evidence of puddles before you settle on a site. We arrived on a Wednesday so it was nice and sparse with not too many neighbors. On the weekend it filled to capacity. You need to fill your water tanks before camping as no water exists at the campsites. Also most sites are old school small with 40 to 30 feet.
Nightly Rate: $33.00
Days Stayed: 4
Site Number: 339
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
AT&T 4G
Spent two nights mid week. Trails are well kept and enjoyable to walk. Staff is friendly. Sites are available for large rigs with tow behinds. Pull through's....Service is up to 50 amp on most sites. Park stays busy on weekends in fall. So you may need reservations. Lot's planned by staff. Dancing, nature walks. The history of the park being built by the CCC in the 30's is interesting. They do have horse and wagon rides.
Nightly Rate: $28.00
Days Stayed: 2
Site Number: 245
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
I went here in winter to try out my new travel trailer from Mar. 8th - 10th. This weekend I had the whole camping area to myself. One note, when picking a site, it was listed as 50A, but they must just list the highest amperage, as it also had 30A service as well as standard 110. My spot was quite nice as it’s not crowded in that part of the campground. There is a dump station but no water there. Water was available at a couple other locations though. The showers were open at this time too. I only rate as 4 stars because well, it was winter and the location is ok, but nothing amazing. The staff that I ran into was very friendly.
Nightly Rate: $23.00
Days Stayed: 3
Site Number: 393
A little pricey to get in, it was $9 for out of state to enter the park and then paid another $23/night. Overall very nice park with nice spacious sites, clean restrooms and lots of nice paved roads for parking. Only issue I see is a lot of the sites may be tight for larger rigs to back into. They do pack a lot of campers in so it can get loud. I was hear on a weekday and all the the park was mostly empty the few campers that were here were right on top of me.
Nightly Rate: $23.00
Days Stayed: 1
Site Number: 311
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
We stayed at Pokagon State Park from 03/06/20-03/08/20. This park near Angola in NE corner of Indiana was worth the trip. We paid a winter rate of $23/night and used our annual Indiana park pass for entry (normally $7 per vehicle). There was a gate attendant Friday night at 7pm during our arrival which was a welcome change from other winter camping we have done. This was our first trip to this park. Our site (#339) was a gravel pull-through, and within easy access to the heated, clean restroom located between sites 361 and 340 that stays open during winter. This site required no sideways leveling but did have one tree that influenced where we wanted our door. Water was available at site 388 during the winter. Our site had 20/30/50 amp service, included the standard fire pit and picnic table, and was easy to access when pulling in during the dark. Road to campground 3 was a bit narrow but we never had oncoming traffic (your mileage may vary during busy weekends). Trash and dump station looked clean and tidy. We just missed the famous Toboggan run which is open Dec-Feb. We took advantage of the extensive trail system, there was a variety of sights to see, and the dogs enjoyed the very long walks. Shower had good pressure and the water was hot. Heard a rumor from a fellow camper that the loop that includes sites 364-376 tends to be a party spot during busy weekends, but that's just hearsay. Only 6 total campsites occupied first weekend of March, 2020. Campground was very quiet and peaceful. Campground 3 is the only available campsite during winter season. Never visited nature center, park office, or the restaurant at the inn. We want to come back and experience more, we enjoyed the trails so much this trip that we never saw much else.
Nightly Rate: $23.00
Days Stayed: 2
Site Number: 339
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
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Pokagon State Park Campground
Hours
- Sun - Sat: 7:00 am - 11:00 pm
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Parking
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Pets Allowed
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Restrooms
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Wifi
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Wheelchair Accessible
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Credit Cards Accepted
- Affiliation
- State park or forest
- Back In RV Sites Count
- 15
- Last Nightly Rate
- 33.0
- Longest Vehicle Length Reported
- 43.0
- Lowest Nightly Rate
- 23.0
- Max Length
- 40ft
- Max Stay
- 14
- Sites Count
- 273
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Paved Sites
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Fifty Amp
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Full Hookup
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Rec Facilities
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Pull Through
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Tent Sites
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Dump Station
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Big Rigs
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Open Seasonally
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Age Restricted
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Back In RV Sites
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Boondock
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Cabin Sites
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Dispersed Sites
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Firewood
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Fulltime Residents
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Group Tent Sites
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Laundry
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Mobile Homes
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Permit Required
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Potable Water
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Propane
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Public Water
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Pull Through RV Sites
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Reservations
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Sewer Hookup
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Showers
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Sites
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Standard Tent Sites
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Vehicle Wash Permitted
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Water Hookup
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