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Picnic Areas and Shelters

Harrington Beach State Park

On hot summer days, the prime attraction of Harrington Beach State Park is the mile of the Lake Michigan shoreline. Visitors enjoy the refreshing lake breezes while picnicking on the groves of trees overlooking the lake.

Beautiful views of Lake Michigan are a feature of the Point and South picnic areas. Point picnic area, along with Puckett’s Pond picnic area by the upper parking lot, has reservable shelters. There are also sand volleyball courts in the park that can be found at both the North and South picnic areas.

On display in the point picnic area overlooking Lake Michigan is the anchor of the freighter Niagara that was consumed by fire just off the shore in 1856, killing as many as 169 people (the purser did not have records of the number of passengers). Scuba divers will want to explore the remains of this wooden steamship, located a few hundred yards offshore in about 80 feet of water.

Reservable shelters

Two open shelters at Harrington Beach State Park can be reserved for group activities.

Reserve a shelter online.

In addition, the Ansay Welcome Center can be reserved by contacting the park office. For more information, see the Friends of Harrington Beach website.