Crescent Beach
Algoma, WI
Crescent Beach is Algoma's downtown Lake Michigan beach, a groomed swimming beach edged by a half-mile boardwalk with benches. Volunteers built much of the boardwalk starting in the 1990s from recycled plastic lumber, and a natural area beside the sand shelters birds and butterflies. The red pierhead lighthouse sits at the end of the breakwater.
A lovely boardwalk beach with a lighthouse and sunrise, though the lake stays chilly into July.
How we score beachesWalk the boardwalk at sunrise. It faces east over the lake, and the light on the pierhead lighthouse is the town's signature view.
Free parking along the boardwalk and near the beach off Highway 42.
The half-mile boardwalk is flat and wide, with benches along the way.
Algoma sits on open Lake Michigan, so the water stays cool until mid July. Fall brings salmon fishing and a quiet, windswept boardwalk.
More Great Lakes beaches
Sleeping Bear Dunes Beach
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Freshwater Lake Michigan surf below towering sand dunes, some over 400 feet tall, with water clear enough to rival a coastline and a hike back up the dune to burn it off.
New Buffalo City Beach
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Warren Dunes State Park
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