Waukegan Dunes — Attraction in Illinois

It is April 1st and waiting on a call for my insurance I decided to take a ride out to the harbor and then drove up to the beach and took a walk, all the snow and ice is melted the waves are high the beaches are a little shorter which means the water is rising but there still is Beach left to enjoy very windy today still very cold my hands got cold with glove ons I was video taping and had a coffee in my other hand eventually when I got back my hands were freezing and it was very cold, for now you really need to bundle up if you are going to sit on the beach in the wind by the water you would need winter gear and a face mask it's really that cold but otherwise I'm looking forward to this early spring and it warming up, they say that the Earth is warming up so hopefully the Summers will be warmer and it will be more pleasant at the beach that's for those that work outside drink lots of water and I use a thin rag or half a t-shirt and wrap it around my head and drape it in the back of my neck and I put a cap over that to guard my face and neck and shoulders from the Sun very important now because the sun shines brighter we need to be careful out in the sun but it's so beautiful looking at the lake and the waves shimmering off of the Sun which I call diamonds on the lake there are all over White Caps are very popular and easily seen today with the highways The Tide is high it's very beautiful and so peaceful if you ever want a peace of mind you don't have to come up to the Waukegan Beach but find a beach in lake Michigan and go on Park and watch the water in the clouds in the skies and nature and put some prayer time in being out at the beach when you're by yourself or if you're by yourself and nobody can hear you talk you're liking your prayer closet you're alone with the Lord and you can talk and and pray, there is no redemption left for this world the only thing we have now is for Christ to come and that's coming very soon keep your eyes on Israel and Jerusalem and the people the Jewish people coming back and the wars and rumors of wars things have just now got a little worse because we got a different president and the way we got that different president was by cheating and stealing our votes so this new government wants to take away our freedom of speech they want to take away our second amendment, see these are things that I think about when I'm up at the lake I don't argue with myself but I think and pray and realize what times I'm living in but I know where my destiny is and it's with the Lord it's all about Jesus Christ the father son and holy Spirit Jesus even talked to the father to his father about preparing a body for him to come...

Not too bad for what it is. Nice big dunes area. However it's really a work in progress. Old industrial sites nearby have been cleared out, so now just needing Waukegan to do something with commercial/entertainment development. Just a huge gravel lot in that spot with nothing at the moment. Also amenities are kind of meh(?), old beach-house was completely neglected so it got torn down and you just have port-a-johns. But at least it's something. On the bright side there's no walk for parking, breakwater is accessible for hiking/fishing, and no parking fee. (Waukegan really could use the money - most other beaches to the south would charge non-residents a $10 fee, but outside any events nobody mans the gatehouse. So even if not officially free for non-residents, in practice it is.) Also the beaches are getting cleaned a lot better than they used to, so there's that too.

Waukegan's Park district is actually pretty good (separated their funds from other services and manages them well), so I suspect the rough edges are because the city itself or the port authority runs the beach and its parks.

This could be 5 star if they'd fix it up. Needs places to eat, venues nearby, and a whole lot of TLC. And within walking distance from Metra. But as it is now, kind of wavering between 3/4 star rating. And that's coming from a current Waukegan resident. (Bumped up just a bit at the moment, because it looks like...

The Waukegan Municipal Beach is very clean and fun to swim in. It is long enough that it never seems excessively crowded. It has fine sand beaches and ample parking. Back from the beach are porta-potties and picnic tables. There is an area for food trucks - when we were there, just one food truck with ice cream and snow cones. What I like about this beach is that it is very long and part of it can be approached through a wild dune area -...