Story by GLENDA WINDERS
Community parks all around Indiana provide the perfect destination for water fun, playful adventures, special events, and all types of outdoor recreation.
Here’s a riddle for you: What do wearing shorts, eating ice cream, playing Frisbee or catch, making water balloons, swimming and grilling hotdogs all have in common?
The answer is that they are among the many things you can do to have fun at an Indiana community park.
Taking the family for such an outing to relax and unwind has long been a summer pastime that ranks high in people’s memories, and our state has many parks that offer all kinds of amenities – including plenty of places to play in the water.
“Parks are an integral part of every community,” said Jylian Riches, Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation marketing and communications director. “Each of our parks in Carmel offers a completely unique experience for park visitors – from immersing yourself in nature to experiencing out-of-this-world play features – our parks are home to active and passive recreational opportunities, something for everyone.”
Her city has 15 parks and four greenways. Central Park is the ultimate place to go for outdoor recreation, with 159 acres to explore, native prairies and a waterpark. West Park, meanwhile, is the place to commune with nature by way of a prairie maze and pond boardwalks.
Promenade Park in Fort Wayne connects the city to eight miles of riverfront along three rivers that meet downtown. The park features a kids’ canal, ping pong and corn hole games, a tree canopy trail, porch swings, river access and trails that have been designed to be welcoming and accessible to people of all abilities.
Folks in La Porte can also enjoy a good splash with several of their parks located on lakes. Fox Memorial Park on Clear Lake has a skatepark, walking trails and an amphitheater for summer concerts. Soldiers Memorial Park has a lake beach with lifeguards and a playground, and Lindewald Park, the city’s first, invites you to “enjoy the lake life.”
The lucky dwellers in Logansport have France Park, where they can take part in hikes through natural beauty, swim or scuba dive in an abandoned quarry, fish in Lake Elzbeck, camp and play disc golf.
Crown Point maintains 26 parks, including Bulldog Park. Located one block west of a vibrant downtown, this park offers community rooms, an open-air pavilion, fire pits, an outdoor amphitheater, a splash pad in the summer and a hockey rink during the winter. It is also the place to go for summer concerts, the weekly farmers market and the weekly car cruise.
Valparaiso’s Creekside Park is home to a network of trails that have soft surfaces for hiking, walking and biking. While at Creekside, be sure and check out Trailyard, a destination of experiences offering a full-service bike shop and Outpost, restaurant and bar, outdoor patio, and coffee shop. Central Park Plaza is near downtown eateries, so leave the picnic basket at home this time and pick up something tasty on your way to alfresco fun.
Bring your binoculars when you come to the Coffee Creek Preserve in Chesterton so you can watch the bird migrations in spring and fall. Hike over 157 acres of woodland and wetlands, catching sight of the whitetail deer who make their home here or a salmon swimming upstream to spawn.
The star of Winamac Town Park is the Veterans Memorial Swinging Bridge, which links the town with the park and honors veterans from all wars. A new addition this year is colored lights. But there’s more to see and do, too – such as basketball, tennis/pickleball and volleyball, multiple art pieces to see and walking trails – all on a peninsula said to be a former Potawatomi campground.
Wolf Lake Park in Hammond offers kayaking, boating, paddleboarding and fishing. Or use the pedestrian trail to discover the Pavilion at Wolf Lake for a concert and the Wolf Lake Aquatic Play Center for children 12 and younger.
There are 20 city parks in Warsaw, but perhaps the most notable is the Winona Lake Limitless Park and Splash Pad. The park is so named because it is accessible to people of all abilities and ages. It sits on Winona Lake near the Village of Winona, so it’s just a short walk to ice cream and candy treats. Here also for your use are a beach, grassy field for play and basketball court.
In Wabash, Friendship Hill is another inclusive playground that was created for all ages and all abilities. In fact, it’s one of the largest inclusive playgrounds in the Midwest. Here you’ll find slides, ropes, seesaws, swings, and climbs, which are safe to enjoy for all kids. In Ligonier the G. Martin Kenney Memorial Park is comprised of 40 acres with a mile-long walking path, lighted ball diamonds, disc golf, soccer field, playground, exercise stations and indoor recreation center. For a complete change of pace, visit the Jenny Thomas Memorial Garden with its floral landscapes, brick walking paths and fountain. This is a perfect spot to read a good book or perhaps meditate.
The place to be in Kendallville is the 530-acre Bixler Lake Park, where locals go to fish, swim and boat, play disc golf, walk on a nature trail and observe wildlife. Nearby Albion boasts Hidden Diamonds Park, which is aptly named because its 50 acres are filled with recreational opportunities – splashpad, pickleball, concession stand, volleyball, disc golf and much more.
Highland Park in Kokomo, the city’s oldest and most historic park, is home to “Old Ben,” the world’s largest taxidermied steer, as well as the “Sycamore Stump” and a covered bridge from Vermont. Besides these novelties, however, it has colorful playgrounds, tennis courts, basketball courts, a horseshoe pit and picnic tables. And this is only one of 31 parks to which Kokomo lays claim.
Greenfield has the advantage of being the hometown of James Whitcomb Riley, the “Hoosier Poet” whose pieces about childhood ring familiar in the places where he lived and played. The old swimmin’ hole that inspired the poem of the same name is at Riley Park, along with skating, pickleball, swimming, basketball and disc golf. Depot Street Park celebrates the city’s railroading past with railroad- wheeled rolling picnic tables and railroad themed swings.
The Wayne County Veterans Memorial Park in Richmond is located within the Whitewater Gorge and serves as a reminder to all visitors to be grateful to the servicemen and women who have fought to keep the United States safe. The larger park is a showcase of geological history.
Greensburg’s 19 parks have been designed to make each of them distinctive. Among them they feature a skateboard park, swimming, basketball courts, softball and baseball diamonds, horseshoe pits and picnic areas. Different still is Mill Race Park in Columbus, which has a covered bridge of its own, a Round Lake, a concert space and walking paths along the Driftwood and Flatrock rivers that converge there to form the East Fork of the White River.
Vincennes’ public park spaces are Wabash Trails, Fox Ridge Nature Preserve and Hillcrest. “It’s the forest’s peace nestled so close to civilization that brings people back to the trails,” said Stacie Phillips, activities director of Wabash Trails. “There’s a lot of beauty at night with a wide-open sky and stars.”
Dubois County is home to community parks both big and small attracting visitors and residents alike.
The Parklands of Jasper is a 75- acre major urban renewal endeavor turning a private 9-hole golf course and woodlands into a park with two miles of walking trails, three ponds all connected by elevated pathways, two water cascades, 25 acres of woods, and more. There’s even a musical playground. The Huntingburg City Park is home to the area’s public swimming pool and splash pad, along with youth baseball and softball fields. It offers playground equipment, volleyball, basketball and tennis courts, multiple shelter houses, a walking/bike path, and is home to League Stadium.
A story about parks in Indiana wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the 24 remarkable state parks. At one, O’Bannon Woods State Park, the good news this year is that Wyandotte Caves are once again open for tours.
Kim Marcum, director of business development and retail operations for Indiana State Parks, said you’re guaranteed to “make memories naturally” at whichever one you go to. And one of the best ways to experience these places is to stay at one of the park inns.
“A stay at an Indiana State Park inn puts you right in the middle of all of the picturesque beauty of our state parks,” Marcum said. “Our hotels provide a comfortable and friendly place to gather, a place to dine on delicious Hoosier favorites and many times are located just steps from a scenic trail.”
Indiana boasts three national parks, too – Indiana Dunes in Porter, Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City and the George Rogers Clark National Historic Park, also in history-rich Vincennes. This is a greenspace along the Wabash River with the largest national memorial west of Washington, D.C., inside it and inside that a statue of Clark.
“It is the heart of Indiana history,” said Ranger Joseph Herron.
