Muskegon County Beaches

Pere Marquette Beach is part of the clean beach council, featuring beautiful sunsets, dune grass, and a lighthouse on the South Channel arm. There are also many playgrounds.

Pere Marquette Public Beach and Park covers 27.5 acres and is owned by the City of Muskegon. It is located at the west end of Lakeshore Dr. Considered "the best kept secret of Muskegon County," the park contains a number of play areas, sand volleyball courts, and well-kept picnic and sunbathing areas. In addition, Pere Marquette Beach offers over 200 feet of paved handicap accessible walkways to ensure enjoyment for a wide variety of visitors.

If you are interested in amazingly beautiful sunsets and walking along uninhabited stretches of sand with your toes in the freshwater surf, Pere Marquette Beach may be the beach for you.

Duck Lake State Park is a 728-acre day-use park, located in Muskegon County. Featuring a towering sand dune, the park stretches from the northern shore of Duck Lake to Lake Michigan. The terrain is a mixture of open brush land to mature hardwood forest, with some pockets of open meadows mixed in.

A sandy beach on Duck Lake is available and a boardwalk around the end of Duck Lake provides access to Lake Michigan for swimming. A wooded area shades the picnic grounds with fire pits/grills. A paved path provides a pleasant stroll through the woods and along the Duck Lake shoreline. The launch site provides access to Duck Lake. A small channel empties into Lake Michigan, but a dam under the Whitehall Scenic Bridge blocks boating access to Lake Michigan. This is often a popular swimming spot for families with young children.



Lake Harbor Park is a 182-acre park has over 4,000 feet on Lake Michigan, 2,000 feet on the Mona Lake Channel and 1,500 feet on Mona Lake. One can access this park by foot, bike, car or boat.

The walkway passes under the bridge and leads to a picnic area overlooking the channel, complete with tables, grills, shelter and restrooms. A new scenic deck overlooking the channel was completed in 2000.

Going west from this walkway, an interpretive trail leads to the dunes, a wooden walkway with observation decks and a beautiful beach on Lake Michigan. There are also many other natural trails leading to Lake Michigan. Some require a little more climbing than others. They lead you through wooded areas and provide you with the opportunity to see and explore the entire park. There is no fee.

Tucked away at the north end of the county, Meinert County Park offers a quiet retreat for the outdoor enthusiast. Meinert Park is 88 acres with rolling dunes, including a large parabolic dune and scenic overlooks providing spectacular views of Little Flower Creek and the Lake Michigan shoreline. Visitors can climb the unimproved trail to the top of a dune for a panoramic view of Lake Michigan and the surrounding countryside.

Meinert County Park is open daily throughout the year. Hours vary from 8:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. May through September and Sunrise to Sunset October through April. Activities include picnicking, swimming, sunbathing, camping, and a rental cottage. A shelter is available to rent for family reunions, company and church picnics or other group activities where shelter is desired. The shelter offers picnic tables with seating for approximately forty people, electrical outlets for crock pots, coffee pots, etc. and a large park grill for cooking.

Muskegon State Park is located four miles west of North Muskegon on the shore of Lake Michigan. There are over two miles of shoreline on Lake Michigan and over a mile on Muskegon Lake. The vast expanse of Great Lakes sand beach ranks among the most beautiful in the world. Forested dunes that join miles of Great Lakes shoreline reflect a significant resource that visitors enjoy each year.

There is a playground and a beach house that provides a clothes-changing area for swimmers.

The park features a bathhouse, playground, day-use parking, a large campground in the dunes, a historic blockhouse, boat launches, and access to Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake.

Twelve miles of marked hiking trails can be found in the park. The trails are a diverse series of loops that meander through a variety of landscapes, from flatland to bog; from lowland to the top of scenic sand dunes. A vehicle entrance fee is required.

Norman F. Kruse Park is a Pet Friendly! This Lake Michigan park features 52.3 acres of residential use and open space. It is located at the west end of Sherman Blvd. Facilities include 2 parking lots, nature trails, barrier dunes, accessible dune walkways, playground, dune overlooks, picnic shelters, restrooms, and a basketball court.

This park has about one mile of Lake Michigan Beach. There is a major picnic area with 4 picnic shelters and an accessible ramp to the beach and into the dunes. Also featured here is a dog beach along the northern part of the park. There is no entrance fee.

The Pioneer County Park is a popular 145-acre park that offers camping, swimming, sunbathing, picnicking, tennis, softball, basketball and volleyball. The park is filled with a variety of mixed oak, maple, white pine and hemlock pine trees. This is our largest and most popular park. Pioneer Park is located on Lake Michigan and has over 2,000 feet of white sandy beach frontage.

Pioneer County Park is open daily throughout the year. Hours vary from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. May through September and sunrise to sunset, October through April.

A lodge building is available to rent for family reunions, company and church picnics or other group activities where shelter is desired. The lodge offers a large stove/oven for cooking, a refrigerator for keeping your food cold and electrical outlets for crock-pots, coffee pots, etc.

P.J. Hoffmaster State Park features forest-covered dunes along nearly three miles of Lake Michigan shore. Its sandy beach is one of the finest anywhere. A focal point of the park is the Gillette Visitor Center.

The Gillette Sand Dune Visitor Center is a beautiful facility facing a towering sand dune. It is recognized as one of the top attractions in the Midwest. The Center has a variety of programs to help visitors enjoy and understand the unique environment of the sand dunes of the Great Lakes. The center features an exhibit hall depicting the ecological zones of the unique dune environment. Multimedia presentations on the dunes and seasonal nature subjects are shown in an 82-seat auditorium. Seasonal exhibits also are featured.

A beach house provides clothes-changing areas for swimmers. There is also a picnic area with picnic tables and fire pits/grills.

With more than 10 miles of trails, the casual hiker or the serious student of nature will find a variety of interesting natural features. Upland, shoreline and aquatic birds are abundant. Hawks soar on the air currents of the dunes when winds are from the east. A main attraction is the Dune Climb Stairway leading to the top of a high sand dune. There, an observation deck offers a panoramic view of the dunes and Lake Michigan. A vehicle entrance fee is required.

Twin Lake Park is a 15-acre park with shaded and open areas for family outdoor activities. The park has 800 feet of frontage on Twin Lake and is very popular for picnicking and swimming.

Twin Lake Park is open daily throughout the year. Hours vary from 8:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. May through September, and sunrise to sunset, October through April. Activities include picnicking, swimming, sunbathing, tennis, volleyball, a barrier free playground, concessions, and boating access.

A lodge building and two picnic shelters are available to rent for family reunions, company and church picnics or other group activities where shelter is desired.

The White River Light Station and Museum is a hidden treasure in northern Muskegon County. Climb the spiral staircase to the top of the lighthouse to find a spectacular view that overlooks the White Lake Channel and Lake Michigan. Touring the museum will be sure to take you back into Lake Michigan nautical history. While you are visiting, plan to take a stroll down the pier and down the sandy shores of Lake Michigan.

For additional Musekgon Country Information: www.visitmuskegon.org