Saugatuck Dunes State Park — Attraction in Laketown Township

We came here by bicycle, but there is a large enough parking area, maybe room for 50-100 cars? Before you are allowed entrance by car, some State Park employees at a booth check to see if you have a recreation pass. This is an environmentally-friendly State park, so there are no flushable toilets nor amenities to buy food/drinks, not even a vending machine. So make sure you bring your own supplies if you're planning on spending a day at the beach. To get to the beach, you have to walk about a half mile on a sandy trail through the dunes. It's really very pretty. All around you there are tall trees (mostly pine), growing in dunes of various heights. However, if you're bringing all kinds of beach chairs and toys and coolers, and kids in strollers, it may be a bit challenging because the sand on the trails is rather deep in some places. There are several other sandy trails of different lengths through the tree-covered dunes you can hike on. All are well-marked with sign posts. I'm not sure if they all lead to different areas of the beach, but the main 0.6 mile beach trail obviously does. Once you get to the end of the beach trail, you'll walk down a big dune to get to the beach. You'll have to walk up it on your way back to the parking lot, so pack lightly. The beach is fairly narrow, but adequately long. It wasn't overly crowded at all on the day we visited, even though the parking lot seemed to be filled. There are no lifeguards and you swim/play in Lake Michigan at your own risk. I'm not sure I even saw a designated swimming area. The beach was clean enough. You're responsible for bringing back your own trash and dispose of it in the parking area. I don't remember seeing garbage cans anywhere near the beach itself. I saw and used one old-style push pump near the parking area, which you can use to rinse sand off yourself, but there are no...

Our adventure to Saugatuck Dunes State park started as a 2.5 hour drive. 🚙 the drive was nice, and scenic and enjoyable.

Once arriving we followed the line of cars and parked on the dead ended shoulder road where it appeared customary to park. We gathered our things and started the trek to the beach! 🏖️

🌲🌲The hike to the beach (the shortest trail) is around 10-15 mins as you walk through a wonderfully, scenic, wooded area that will peak the interest of any and all nature photog! Get ya cameras ready! 📸

Once you hit the beach, the waters are beautiful! The beach is spacious, pick and spot and get out in the water and enjoy some sun! 🌊 ☀️ if you have any rock collectors in your fam, lots of beautiful, unique rocks around! 🪨

⛱️Very soft, white sand beaches make up the shoreline of Saugatuck Dunes! Tons of fun in the sun and sand for the kids 👦 👧 and doggies 🐶 🐕 alike! Many people had their pups out enjoying the day and sand; as much as the next!

Saugatuck also does offer things like a manual pump wash station 🚿 to get all that pesky sand off when the fun is over and everyone has to pile back into the car! 🚗 Outhouse style bathrooms 🚽 Keep in mind keep that lid closed to prevent further odors from escaping 🤢👃💨

👍👍👏👏 Overall, if you want some wonderful, family fun and beautiful sights and sounds and experiences, do yourself and your fam, and/or friends a favor, and explore Saugatuck Dunes State Park/Trails/Beach! You guys will be glad you did, I know we were and we can’t wait to come...

My wife and I stopped here while visiting Saugatuck for the day. At first, we thought it was going to be a tiny little park with not much to do simply due to the size of the parking lot. Well, there really isn't that much to "do", but it's perfect. The park is so beautiful and all that is needed are trails. That's what this place has. The trails are well cared for and the scenery is gorgeous. Take your pick of several trails that make loops out to the lake. I believe there are two or three that are 2.5 mile loops and one that is 5 miles?? I don't remember paying too close attention to the map... I don't recall seeing anywhere that you could grill food, but we weren't looking for that. If there are grills there and I missed it, that's my bad. Being from out of state (Indiana), we had to pay nine dollars to get in, but that was worth it. The only thing I wished for was more time to be able to spend here as it was really a very beautiful park. Michigan sure has a lot of treasures close by. The dunes that are all along Lake Michigan's coast are all well worth visiting. This park is definitely worth a stop. You will...