[Sillypups]

AND... WHY is it your favorite beach ?

AND what beaches on east side of lake Michigan are ROCKY ???


Thanks in advance...
Sillypups

[Nephler]

Sturgeon Bay on the north end of Emmet County. There is lots of sand, a few rocky areas, and lots of private areas. Also some nice dunes to play on.

[tecpatl]

Country beach: the miles of shoreline in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, particularly North Bar Lake and Good Harbor Bay.
In town: In the village of Leland, Van's Beach, south of the harbor (Cedar st west to the parking lot then a short path thru the trees to wide sandy public beach) or North Beach, in Leland on the West end of North St., north of the harbor.
Both give access to miles of shoreline, nice sandy beach with good swimming, good Petoskey stone picking and the only place in the world (outside of pricey jewelry) where the famous Leland Blue stone can be found by beachwalkers.
Another good "town" beach is Empire beach, in that southern Leelanau village.

Van's beach

[michmoldman]

East side....Tawas State Park beach and Caseville....why? Go find out for yourself...awesome!

[us66]

Leland is nice, but for some reason (I'm a picky spoilsport, I guess) the Manitou Islands on the horizon ruin the view for me. Still a very nice place, though, and one of my wife's favorite places on Earth. (She went without me last year as I don't often like going north of Oakland County). My other fav is in St. Joseph- I don't remember the name of the park, but it's a county park close to downtown (might have been downtown but I don't remember) and it was lovely and open a lot later into the night than I would have expected.

[Bydand]

My favorite beach is whichever one I'm laying on at the moment. Usually that would be the beach around the Ludington area. It can vary anywhere along the miles of sand between the southern edge of the Ludington State Park all the way through the Nordhouse Dunes area and Lake Michigan Recreational area. Just depends on where the people are NOT. I can't stand laying on a beach and having anybody within 1/4 mile of me... guess I am a bit spoiled .

As for rocky beaches on this side of the Lake, I can't think of any that are all rock and what most people think of as a rocky beach. For me a rocky beach is one that there are rocks mixed in the sand, for that I can only think of a couple like that in the area.

[Wingnatic]

I may be biased because my grandmother lived there , my mom grew up there , I've been going there since the early 1950's before it became a State Park , but for me it's the Tawas State Park . If you can make it up the stairs , they do lighthouse tours and it still works btw

[chiroptera]

The long-departed OP asked about beaches on the east side of Lake Michigan. Not the west side or the UP.

I second Tawas, and a bit north of there: Harrisville (there's a small campground in Harrisville and miles of sandy beach.) For rocky beaches on the east side... just north of the Harrisville campground the shoreline gets rocky but you can still walk for miles.

[michmoldman]

Sorry...I thought you said east side of state earlier. Everyone has mentioned some great ones, and there is also a hidden gem in Empire with a fantastic beach and playground.

[mackinac81]

I like Empire and Grand Haven. I have good memories of Grand Haven from my college days and it's a nice beach town. Empire is a gem--especially in the morning when no one's about. Just you, the sand, the wind and the waves with the Sleeping Bear Dunes in the distance. One morning I went and the lake was literally sapphire blue. Absolutely gorgeous.

To US66: You're thinking of Silver Beach, I think. It's a top rated beach and also very nice. I look forward to going there a lot in the coming years.