Marquette Park Beach
Gary, IN
Marquette Park Beach sits in Gary's Miller Beach neighborhood, in front of the restored Gary Bathing Beach Aquatorium, a 1920s bathhouse that now honors aviation pioneer Octave Chanute's glider flights from these dunes. The beach is wide and sandy, with the park's lagoons and dunes behind it.
A wide beach with real aviation history in a revived neighborhood, though Gary's beaches get uneven upkeep.
How we score beachesVisit the Aquatorium's exhibits on Chanute's 1896 glider experiments before hitting the sand.
Parking in Marquette Park.
Paved paths from the park lead to the sand.
Lifeguards and city beach services run in summer. The lagoons and dunes are good for birding in spring and fall.
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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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
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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.