Moraine Beach
Highland Park, IL
Moraine Beach sits below Moraine Park in Highland Park, a passive, non-swimming beach best known for its dog beach. Dog owners with Highland Park permits let their dogs run in the lake here. The park up top is a grassy bluff with lake views, and the beach below is one of the few legal places on the North Shore for dogs to swim.
A local favorite for dogs, though it's permit-only and there's no swimming for people.
How we score beachesGet the Park District dog beach permit before you go; staff check.
Parking at Moraine Park; check posted permit rules.
A path leads down the bluff to the beach.
Dogs are allowed in the designated dog beach area with a Park District permit.
Dog owners use the beach from spring through late fall, when the lake is cold but the dogs don't mind. People aren't allowed to swim here.
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.
