Pokagon State Park: Trails #3 and #6 (Blog Hike #906)

Trails: #3 and #6
Hike Location: Pokagon State Park
Geographic Location: north of Angola, IN (41.70410, -85.02195)
Length: 3 miles
Difficulty: 4/10 (Moderate)
Date Hiked: October 2022
Overview: A loop hike featuring glacier-formed kames and kettle lakes.
Park Information: https://www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks/parks-lakes/pokagon-state-parktrine-state-recreation-area/
Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=923863
Photo Highlight:

Hike Video: 

Directions to the trailhead: In extreme northeast Indiana, take I-69 to SR 127 and SR 727 (exit 352).  Exit and go west on SR 727, which deadends at the park.  Pay the park entrance fee, and drive the main park road to the parking lot for the park's Potawatomi Inn.  Park in the far back left (northeast) corner of the large parking lot, where Trail #3 begins.

The hike: Occupying 1260 acres of glacier-created landforms, Pokagon State Park (pronounced like poe-KAY-gun) is the northeastern-most state park in Indiana.  The land began its life as public parkland in 1925 with the formation of Lake James State Park, Indiana's fifth state park.  Although the park is located on the bank of Lake James, a few years later the park's name was changed to honor Leopold and Simon Pokagon, a famous father-son duo of Potawatomi chiefs who lived in this area in the 1800's.

            Many of the park's trails and structures were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which lived and worked here from 1934 until 1942.  Perhaps the park's most famous amenity is its toboggan run.  During the winter, the twin-track structure hurtles tobogganers downhill for a quarter-mile at speeds reaching 35-40 miles per hour.  The park also features the Potawatomi Inn, part of which dates to 1927, and a 273-site developed campground.  Boating, swimming, and fishing on Lake James, a nature center, numerous picnic shelters, and a playground round out the amenities.

            For hikers, the park offers 9 trails that total nearly 14 miles in length.  All of these trails let you experience the glacier-created kettle and kame topography for which this region is famous, but the park's most popular trail is the 2.2 mile Trail #3 because it takes you to the park's tallest kames and biggest kettles.  Tacking on Trail #6 as an extra loop off of Trail #3 forms the hike described here.

Trailhead near Potawatomi Inn

            From the northeast corner of the inn's parking area, a simple black wooden sign that says "Trail 3" identifies the trailhead.  The trail crosses a short entrance boardwalk, and after only a couple hundred feet it splits to form its loop.  This description will turn left here and use the trail going right as our return route, thus hiking Trail #3's loop clockwise.

            At the next trail intersection, you need to turn right to stay on Trail #3 and climb the first kame.  A kame is a mound of dirt or gravel deposited by a retreating glacier, and northeast Indiana has many of them.  This climb is short but steep, and soon you reach the top and start a gradual descent.

Climbing the first kame

            At 0.3 miles, you cross the park entrance road.  Ignore Trail #2, a trail also open to horses that enters and exits to the left.  All of the trail intersections are well-marked, so route-finding is easy: just keep following Trail #3.  Some nice mature forest occupies this part of the park, and it features some tulip poplar, oak, hickory, and some pine plantings.  The fall colors were quite nice when I hiked here on a cold wet morning in mid-October.

Hiking through nice forest

            After passing intersections with Trails #7, #8, and #9, you climb a set of wooden steps to reach Hell's Point just past 1 mile into the hike.  Hell's Point is another kame, and at roughly 1080 feet of elevation, it is the highest point in Pokagon State Park.  An observation deck with a bench sits atop this kame, but the unspectacular view looks out only at trees.

View from observation deck

            Next the trail curves right as it descends the other side of the kame.  The next 0.8 miles pass through rolling terrain that features some forest and also some wetlands.  The wide trail makes for rather easy going.  Continue straight through intersections with Trail #9 and the park entrance road.

            At 1.9 miles, you reach an intersection with Trail #6.  For the shortest route back to the trailhead, you would turn right here to continue on Trail #3.  To extend your hike through kettle and kame topography, turn left to begin Trail #6.

Hiking Trail #6

            Trail #6 features more of the undulations and broadleaf forest you have become accustomed to.  Views of Lake Charles, a private lake just beyond the park's southern boundary, can be had to the left.  At 2.5 miles, you reach the other end of Trail #6 where it returns to Trail #3.  Turn left to continue a clockwise journey around Trail #3.

Boardwalk through wetland

Lake Lonidaw

Lake Lonidaw

            Soon Trail #3 breaks out of the forest and enters a wetland that contains a large number of cattails and grasses.  After crossing the wetland and a creek on a boardwalk, a spur trail to Lake Lonidaw exits right.  Turn right to hike the short spur to the lake, which is a small but attractive kettle lake surrounded by wetland and woods.  Back on the main trail, you close Trail #3's loop in only a few hundred more feet.  Turn left to return to the inn's parking lot and complete the hike.