Porter Beach
Porter, IN
Porter Beach is a national park beach at Wabash Avenue and Johnson Beach Road, on the west side of Indiana Dunes State Park. It has about 66 free parking spaces that fill fast on summer weekends, and the dunes rise steeply behind the sand. It's a quieter, free alternative to the state park beach next door.
Free, uncrowded national park sand right next to the state park, though the small lot is gone by midmorning in July.
How we score beachesArrive before 10 on summer weekends; the small free lot fills fast.
About 66 free spaces at the lot.
A short walk from the lot to the sand.
The water here warms by early July. On clear evenings the Chicago skyline shows up faintly across the lake to the northwest.
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.