Living on this beach for the past 2 years has been nothing short of fantastic. I would sit and listen to the water as I read or thought about my next life moves. Very relaxing. I am not too far away so I’m sure I will be back to visit soon!
Bob B.
Place rating: 3 Chicago, IL
A pocket-sized park and beach, with a small set of clambering equipment, but, in the morning sometimes, the sunrise, mist on the water, and birds chirping. An awesome site!
Robert S.
Place rating: 4 Chicago, IL
Cool little park with a place for the kids to play on swings and slides, they also have enough room to throw around a Frisbee or to just lay out and read a book Like I said it is small but nice and clean, their is also a small beach here with some sand but more rocks than sand it was a great location to get some pictures of the clouds over Lake Michigan though so check it out
Patricia K.
Place rating: 4 Chicago, IL
The strongest attributes of this beach is it’s setup. Not only is there a beach but there is also a shaded park and a kids playground. The entire area is not very large. The length of the area is about a block long and probably a block deep from the street to the water. I found that by sitting on the concrete ledge that separates the grass and playground from the drop down to the sandy beach was the perfect location for our trip this past Sunday. We were able to escape the sun with a bit of shading and I was situated so that if my son wanted to play in the sand or go down the playground’s slide, I could see him and reach him quickly should anything happen — all while not needing to move our belongings to accommodate his changing desires. He was free to go where his four-year-old personality inspired him without having to wait for mommy to relocate. This is not just appealing to parents. It works well for group outings. While we were there, there was a group of people that set up two outposts. The first was on the beach portion. The other was in the park area, where they BBQ’d and escaped the beating sun. The two areas were both highly visible from each other. Therefore, they could keep their beach items on the beach and their bbq/park items in the park. They moved between the two areas without concern of items being taken or lost. They really had the best of both worlds. As I mentioned, the beach is fairly small and likely unknown to most. There were a limited number of people throughout our three hour visit. The beach certainly didn’t look abandoned but it was nowhere near the overcrowded beaches along LSD. Out of the 25 – 30 people there, I don’t think there were any tourists. In fact, the people all seemed to be fairly local. My only real complaint is that the sand itself is a bit unkempt. It was very rocky, which I expected. However, my concern was the couple shards of glass and other various debris that I had to repeatedly avoid while hoping up on the concrete ledge. I am unsure how avoidable this is as it is other people’s reckless behavior that causes such occurrences. I just warn everyone to keep their eyes peeled while walking through the sand.
David R.
Place rating: 4 Park Ridge, IL
The park is definitely busier than ever overall, but 1.) the lock-stock-and-barrel weekend barbecue crowd comes less often this year(seemingly only on holidays and really hot days); and 2.) you can still find moments of peace and quiet. Tuesday afternoon I spent about ninety minutes there and for much of it, I was the only person in the park besides the lifeguard. Nothing but the soft whisper of the wind, the rhythmic whosh of the waves, and the near-melodic screak of the swingset. Now THAT is time well spent. This Sunday I had visitors who wanted to use the beach(which I never do) and was surprised by the scene. There were more people than I would have thought, but it wasn’t overrun; maybe 25 – 30 at peak. I got the impression that many of these were suburbanites who were hitting one of the northernmost Chicago beaches because the North Shore beaches such as Evanston charge money? In any case, it wasn’t rowdy or bustling but there was enough activity to keep you occupied if you just wanted to watch the kids(or adults) playing. And I’ve always described this beach as devoid of scenery other than sailboats, but there was surprisingly plenty of eye candy there this time, mostly in the late-teen/early-twenties range. Going to the beach is not my thing, but that made it enjoyable.
