The Lake Forest Beach Is Beautiful... But Off Limits?

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Hey, welcome back. I'm glad you're here.

[00:00:02]Today, we're talking about something that I think a lot of people in Lake County and really the northern suburbs of Chicago in general have either experienced firsthand or they're about to. And that something is Lake Forest Beach, specifically Forest Park Beach in Lake Forest, Illinois and what it now costs you if you don't happen to live there. But first, let me paint you a picture. You're driving up Sheridan Road or maybe you're coming in on Route 41 and you make your way toward the Lake Michigan shoreline somewhere up in Lake County. You're expecting, you know, what most people expect when they think Illinois and Lake, maybe some rocks, maybe a scrubby little patch of grass, maybe a parking lot with a sad little trailhead. That's the expectation. And then you come to Lake Forest Forest Park Beach and your jaw drops because instead of a rocky bluff like you'd see in a lot of places along this stretch of shore, you get this sprawling beautiful sandy beach, 29 acres of parkland right on Lake Michigan. There are pavilions, a concession stand, walking paths, a fishing pier, a boat ramp, a playground for the kids, plenty of benches to just sit around and watch the waves. The beach itself is wide and sandy. The water is blue. In the summer, it genuinely feels like someone shrunk down a piece of the Atlantic coast and dropped it quietly in the Midwest while nobody was looking. I've been there.

[00:01:17]I've enjoyed it and I mean that sincerely. It's a fetch beach.

[00:01:21]Legitimately one of the better surprises Lake County has to offer. If you haven't been and you're from around here, it's worth seeing or at least it was worth seeing. I'll get to that in a minute.

[00:01:30]For a long time, if you were a Lake Forest resident, you had it made. You parked in the lot, you showed your resident sticker or your ID, and you walked right down to the beach, easy. As it should be since Lake Forest residents pay property taxes that fund that beach.

[00:01:43]If you were a non-resident, meaning everyone else in Lake County, Illinois, the Chicagoland area, the planet in general, you still had access, but the situation was a little different. You couldn't park on site. You had to either park in the business district downtown or at the metro train station, and either walk or get dropped off. It was a little inconvenient, sure, but from what I remember and from what I've read, it was essentially free, or at least the access fee wasn't particularly memorable or prohibitive. Weekends and holidays, there was apparently a fee for non-residents. I've seen references to it being around $10 per person at one point, still pretty doable. A family of four could swing that without feeling like they needed to finance something.

[00:02:20]So, here's where we are now. I went to look up Forest Park Beach ahead of a summer pilgrimage there, and I found myself staring at the current fee structure for non-residents. The non-residents entrance is located at the stairs, and there is a $25 daily fee per person. Credit cards only. Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover. Sorry, no refunds given. There is no on-site parking. Let me just let that land for a second. $25 per person, no cash, no refunds, and also no parking for you anywhere nearby. The beach itself says you can park at the business district or at the train station. It is a short 3/4 mile walk to the lakefront. So, there's that 3/4 mile walk in the July heat in your flip-flops, carrying all your stuff after you've paid 25 bucks ahead. Don't forget your cooler, your sunscreen, and your dignity. A family of four, two adults, two kids, is looking at a hundred bucks just to get on the sand before you've bought a single overpriced bottle of water or a scoop of ice cream from the concession stand, before parking, a hundred dollars to go to a public beach. And that's just for general admission. Want to actually park on site? Well, a non-resident parking sticker for the south lot is also sold for $910 at the recreation center. $910 for a parking sticker for the beach. I want to be very clear that I'm not making that number up. That's on the Lake Forest Parks and Recreation website. $910.

[00:03:44]Now, look, I want to be fair. I want to understand this from Lake Forest perspective, and honestly, some context helps. Lake Forest, Illinois, is one of the wealthiest communities in the United States. Not just in Illinois, in the country. The median household income in Lake Forest is around $235,000 with a poverty rate of just 3.5%. About 80% of adults in Lake Forest have bachelor degrees or higher, compared to 31% nationwide. Median income is in the 100th percentile, meaning 0% of cities in the country have higher household incomes. The median home sale price in Lake Forest hovers around a million dollars. So, when Lake Forest residents say, "We paid for this beach through our property taxes," they're not wrong. But, the math is a little different when those property taxes are being levied on million-dollar homes. This isn't Waukegan. This isn't Zion. This isn't a working-class town that scrimped and saved to build a community beach. Lake Forest is a city where the median household brings in a quarter of a million dollars a year. The city recently completed a brand new Forest Park Beach Pathway project, a gorgeous boardwalk and coastal improvement funded through a public-private partnership with the city committing 1.3 million dollars and raising an additional 1.3 million dollars from private donations, including a $500,000 lead donation alone. The boardwalk decking was also funded by a $150,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. So, the city of Lake Forest, with its million-dollar homes and its quarter-million-dollar median incomes, raised a million dollars in private donations in 3 months to upgrade a beach, and then charged the rest of us $25 to get within rope-line distance of it. I'm not angry. I'm just impressed by the consistency. Here's the thing, and I'll give credit where credit is due.

[00:05:22]There is a legitimate argument on Lake Forest's side. Reviewers have pointed out that the city spent considerable money upgrading the waterfront and then experienced major influxes of people coming just for the beach. The argument goes, "Why should residents pay for the ongoing maintenance and cleanup for everyone else?" That's not an unreasonable position. Local residents fund the local infrastructure. It's how municipalities work. But, here's where I start to push back. Lake Michigan is a great lake. It belongs to everyone. The water itself is a shared public resource. What Lake Forest owns is the infrastructure surrounding it. The parking lots, the pavilion, the playground, the concession stand. That stuff costs money to maintain, fair enough. But $25 per person with no parking, no refunds, and a 3/4 mile walk to get there? At some point it stops being a maintenance fee and starts being a we would prefer you not to come here fee. That's the difference. And the vibe the pricing sends, intentional or not, is pretty clear. This is our beach.

[00:06:17]You're welcome to visit, technically, but we've priced it in a way that will make most working-class families think twice about it. So, the good news is if you're a Lake County resident who wants Lake Michigan access without taking out a small loan, you have some options.

[00:06:30]Illinois Beach State Park stretches for 6 and 1/2 miles along the sandy shores of Lake Michigan in northern Illinois.

[00:06:35]It encompasses the only remaining beach ridge shoreline left in the state. The park covers 4,160 acres and contains over 6 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline.

[00:06:44]Recreational activities include boating, swimming, hiking, bicycling, camping, bird watching, and picnicking. And the beach access? Free. It's a state park, it belongs to everyone. Illinois Beach State Park is up in Zion, right near the Wisconsin border. It's not in the heart of the North Shore. It's a bit of a drive for a lot of folks, but if you want Lake Michigan without the velvet rope and the $25 cover charge, that's your move. Rosewood Beach in Highland Park is open daily from dusk till dawn, and access is free for residents. Though non-residents must pay an hourly fee.

[00:07:13]Still, at least it's hourly. Waukegan Municipal Beach is another option. And the Open Lands Lakeshore Preserve offers a more rugged, undeveloped stretch of shoreline. So, the lake is out there, you just have to shop around for it.

[00:07:25]What's happening at Forest Park Beach isn't unique to Lake Forest. Nearby Lake Bluff Sunrise Beach recently raised its non-resident fees for the first time in 5 years after being named one of the top 100 secret beaches in America, which brought a massive surge of non-resident visitors that strained staffing, restrooms, and available space. So, the pressure is real. Communities up and down the North Shore are grappling with how to manage public access to what is a genuinely beautiful and limited shoreline. But, there's a meaningful conversation to have about who gets to use the Great Lakes, which are literally the largest surface freshwater system on Earth, and how much it should cost to access them. These aren't private resort pools, they're natural wonders that exist whether Lake Forest built a boardwalk next to it or not. When a wealthy community charges prices that effectively price out lower income families from an afternoon at the lake, that's a policy choice. It's legal. It might even be defensible on paper, but let's be honest about what it is. It's a door, and the door costs 25 bucks a person, cards only, no refunds. So, will I still make my pilgrimage to the Forest Park Beach this summer? Honestly, no.

[00:08:28]Not when I've done the math on what it costs for a non-resident family to spend an afternoon there. I'll likely be heading up to Illinois Beach State Park in Zion, where 6 and 1/2 mi of Lake Michigan shoreline will happily take $0 from my pocket. If you're a Lake Forest resident, count your blessings. It's really a gorgeous beach, and it's yours.

[00:08:43]If you're everyone else in Lake County, welcome to the public beach situation.

[00:08:47]Bring exact change. Actually, bring your card, they don't take cash, and comfortable walking shoes, and maybe a sense of humor about the whole thing, because Lake Forest has a beautiful stretch of Lake Michigan, and they'd like you to know you're welcome to visit for 25 bucks.

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