Esch Road Beach
Empire, MI
Esch Road Beach, also called Otter Creek Beach, sits where Otter Creek slides into Lake Michigan inside Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A logging village called Aral stood here in the 1880s, and a few interpretive plaques near the lot tell the story. Little kids spend hours damming the shallow creek while their parents take the big lake.
The creek makes it one of the best little-kid beaches in the Lakeshore, though the lot is tiny.
How we score beachesThe creek runs several degrees warmer than the lake by midsummer. Set up where it meets the beach and you get both.
A National Lakeshore park pass is required; the lot at the end of Esch Road is small and full by late morning on July weekends.
A short, sandy path runs from the lot to the creek mouth and beach.
Leashed pets are allowed to the right of Esch Road when facing the water; no pets to the left.
The creek is at its best for wading from July through mid August. After Labor Day the lot empties and it turns back into a quiet walking beach.
More Great Lakes beaches
Sleeping Bear Dunes Beach
Empire, MI · Great Lakes
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
New Buffalo, MI · Great Lakes
New Buffalo City Beach is the first real Lake Michigan beach you hit crossing from Indiana, a wide stretch of sand at the end of Whittaker Street beside the harbor and the Galien River channel. Chicago weekenders fill it in summer. The town's shops and restaurants are a five minute walk back up the street.
Warren Dunes State Park
Sawyer, MI · Great Lakes
Warren Dunes State Park in Sawyer has roughly three miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and some of the tallest dunes in southwest Michigan. Tower Hill rises about 260 feet above the lake, and climbing it and running back down is a rite of passage. On a hot July Saturday the beach feels like a small city.