Holland State Park — Attraction in Park Township

Great beach with a cool peer with lighthouse. Scary but in a cool way in the winter, and nice and relaxing in the summer. If you are looking for a place to take the kids swimming on Lake Michigan, with a nice sandy beach and some waves, this is the place!

There is a huge playground by the parking lot. There is also a pavilion with inflatable/surf board/cart rentals, and a store that also sells ice cream. Bathrooms with changing areas (no showers though, I think). The store is super slow though (it’s a busy park!) and a little overpriced.

The parking lot is connected almost to the end of the beach by two long, blue sidewalks that make it much easier to walk to the water compared to walking in the sand. Despite this, the beach as a whole isn’t wheelchair accessible. There are no sidewalks that take you straight to the water and around the while beach like in Muskegon, and no sand wheelchairs like in Grand Haven.

The lighthouse is indeed cool. Just keep in mind there are deaths here every year from people carelessly jumping into the water off the pier, next to the rocks. There can also be rip currents, and the flag system might not be updated frequently. Still, be cautious...

Wind & waves were great on 11-17-2022. We watched the sand bars do their job to break down the waves coming onshore to the beach. The waves coming in from the lake and entering the harbor are reduced to about 3' to 3.5' by the harbor mouth profile and they break impressively against the rocks protecting the pier jetties. The waves that were reaching into the channel had a nice roll over the edge of the channel wall as shown. The wind direction allowed us to stand comfortably behind the NOAA weather station.

Note that the water height shown in the videos is about 1 foot higher (than a calm day) due to the storm surge. The fetch distance across the lake, that the wind has to build up the wave height, yields about 1' of storm surge (additional water height) during our stronger storms that come from the west and northwest.

Stay safe and don't run out across the piers in storms. Many have lost their lives doing this. Enjoy the power and majesty of God's great creation from a...

We really like this campground, been here multiple times. Some of the nice things to do are to take a walk among the historic houses near the park, or to climb Mt. Pisgah (the bottom of the trail is actually nearer to the lake campground, but definitely walkable from the beach campground, or I believe you can park a bike at the state park headquarters). One time when we were camping there, some idiots dumped their grill's hot coals into the sand and started a fast-spreading grass fire. Some of the campers near the fire had to move out in a hurry, so that was a little scary, though definitely not the park's fault, they have clearly marked cans to properly dispose of hot coals. Another thing that can happen if your site is up against the dunes is you might get people (especially little kids) going behind your camper playing in the dunes. So, if you don't like that, maybe don't choose a site right up against the dunes, because it's probably impossible...