Wright Park Beach
Dunkirk, NY
Wright Park Beach is a lifeguarded city beach on the east side of Dunkirk, with a splash pad at the playground that draws kids on hot days. The park also has pickleball, basketball, and street hockey courts and a sand volleyball pit.
A good all-around family park with a guarded beach and splash pad, though the sand itself is modest.
How we score beachesLet the kids run through the splash pad after a swim.
Parking at the park.
A short walk from the lot to the sand and splash pad.
Lifeguards and the splash pad run through the summer season. On breezy evenings, pickup volleyball games fill the sand pit.
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.