Three Family-Friendly Beaches at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

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Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, located along the northwestern coast of Michigan, boasts amazing views of beautiful Lake Michigan and offers some of the most scenic sites along the Great Lakes. However, while Lake Michigan is certainly fantastic to look at, it isn’t always an optimal choice for swimming.

If you have ever been swimming in Lake Michigan, you know that the water can be quite cold, even during the hottest days of summer. Those cold temperatures, combined with waves and rocky shorelines, can turn off families looking for a nice quiet place to swim, especially families with young children. Luckily, there are plenty of options for families outside of swimming in Lake Michigan. Three of our favorite beaches are Esch Road, North Bar Lake, and Platte River Point.

We like these three beaches because they all offer access to inland waterways, either along a river or a smaller lake, buffering swimmers from the cold Lake Michigan and ensuring the water is the perfect temperature and depth for swimmers of all ages and abilities. Continue reading to learn more about our top three family-friendly picks!

Cost: You will need to purchase a Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore visitor pass to use this beach.
Parking: Yes, a small gravel lot where visitors can park just off the road.
Restrooms: Yes, a primitive restroom is located near the parking lot.

Esch Road Beach is sometimes also known as simply Esch Beach or Otter Creek Beach, as the beach extends toward the mouth of Otter Creek at Lake Michigan. It is located about 5 miles south of Empire on M-22. Take Esch Road west until you get to the lake (you may need to use just “Esch Beach” in your map app, as the name appears to differ depending on which you use).

The parking lot here is not as convenient as those at North Bar Lake and Platte River Point. As the road approaches the lake, it widens into an unmarked gravel parking area on both sides that can fill up quickly on busy days. Once it fills up, people will park along the sides of the road further away from the beach. We definitely advise checking this beach out on a weekday or during off-peak hours to ensure you can get a close parking space.

Visitors can choose to swim at the beach at the end of the parking lot trail (the water is about 300 feet from the parking lot, according to Friends of Sleeping Bears Dunes). However, we prefer to turn south once you hit the lake and take the walking path about 500 additional feet toward Otter Creek. This is a little bit of a hike over small dunes on a narrow path through dune grasses, but it’s worth the short hike! Once you get to Otter Creek, spend some time wading in the secluded, warm water and explore the creek upstream a bit.

We enjoy setting our beach umbrella up on the little sand bar between the lake and the creek. Spend a nice afternoon building sandcastles, swimming upstream to explore the creek, and lazily letting the current take you out to the lake. The water on the Lake Michigan side is considerably colder and rockier than the creek, as you can see in the photos, but the view is a lovely backdrop.

Cost: You will need to purchase a Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore visitor pass to use this beach.
Parking: Yes. A nicely paved lot with marked spaces, trash cans, and picnic tables.
Restrooms: Yes. A primitive restroom is located in the parking lot as well as closer to the beach.

We first visited North Bar Lake on a late afternoon in July, when the sun was starting to get low against the dunes separating it from Lake Michigan. It was a lovely, quiet area to spend the rest of our beach day. We like the secluded feeling of this lake and the several nice views you can get from a quick walk around. The lake itself is shallow and warm, with a sandy bottom that makes it a perfect swimming lake.

North Bar offers a paved parking lot with restrooms and picnic tables, but you will need to walk on a stone trail that turns into sand as you get closer to the lake, so prepare to carry your beach gear a bit. According to Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, the trail from the parking lot to the lake is about a quarter mile, with the first 750 feet being crushed stone and the last 600 feet made of dune sand.

From North Bar Lake, you can walk toward Lake Michigan, choosing to take either the stairs over the dunes or walking along the beach until the lake turns into a narrow outlet that flows gently into Lake Michigan. From the top of the dune stairs, you also get a nice view of both Bar Lake and Lake Michigan.

The water that flows into Lake Michigan here is warm and shallow, making it a perfect place for little ones to splash around. This is a great place for wading and relaxing as you marvel at Lake MIchigan. You will notice more stones in the sand the closer you get to Lake Michigan, but most of this area has a sandy bottom.

Beachgoers can choose to settle near the back end of North Bar Lake, closest to the parking lot, but we prefer to walk around it to the outlet near Lake Michigan. The bottom here seems to have less seaweed and muck, and the view is lovely. Either way, anywhere around North Bar is nice for swimming.

By contrast, the beach on Lake Michigan is much rockier and harder to wade in, with more waves, although it is very pretty!

Cost: You will need to purchase a Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore visitor pass to use this beach or pay a parking fee to use the part of the lot owned by Lake Township.
Parking: This beach offers a large, paved parking lot with clearly marked spaces.
Restrooms: Yes, this beach offers modern restroom facilities with drinking fountains.

Platte Point Beach, also known as Platte River Point Beach, has a lot going for it. First, the Platte River is a popular place to canoe, kayak, and tube in the summer months. As you approach the parking lot and look to the river at your left, you will probably see groups tubing toward where the river meets the lake. Second, the parking lot is large, paved, and conveniently close to the beach. Third, there are plenty of restrooms, benches, grassy areas, and picnic tables nearby. And finally, of course, the water is warm and swimmable.

Platte River Point Beach is located right where the river meets Lake Michigan. It’s downstream from the terminus for the livery, so it avoids the tubing and kayaking crowds. A downside of this beach is probably the crowds. At least when we visited, this beach was busier than Esch Road and North Bar Lake. That probably has something to do with it being a popular spot for tubing, and also the fact that it is so easily accessible. Platte Point also seemed to have the rockiest sand of the three beaches, mostly because the beach area begins right as the river meets Lake Michigan, but there is still quite a bit of soft sandy area for sitting and wading.

The amenities of Platte River Point are fabulous though. We really like the easy access to this beach. The parking lot is large and paved, with marked spaces and sidewalks. Adjacent to the parking lot is a nice, big grassy area with picnic tables, grills, modern restrooms, garbage cans, and benches. You can walk straight from the parking lot onto the beach via a short sand trail, without having to trek very far with your gear.

We also love how deep the Platte River gets, even as it enters Lake Michigan. At Esch Road and North Bar Lake, the outlets become pretty shallow—maybe a foot or less of water as they meet the lake. But in our experiences at Platte Point, the river remained deep enough to swim in pretty much all the way up until it meets Lake Michigan.

• Bring drinking water and snacks. Some of the public beaches have access to drinking water, some do not. In addition, most don’t have any access to restaurants or other places to purchase food, so be sure to pack something for the day!
• Visit the beach during off-peak hours for less crowds. Morning/evenings and weekdays tend to be less crowded, so you won’t be fighting for a good spot for the beach blanket.
• Take along a wagon or something else to lug around beach supplies. Some of the beaches are a bit of a trek. You won’t want to be carrying all your gear in your arms as you walk across sandy dunes.
• Purchase a parking pass. You can do this ahead of time, or at the beaches that offer self-serve kiosks.
• Remember that the beaches change with weather conditions, season, water levels, etc. so they may not look exactly the same from year to year!