Blanchard Beach is the sandy swim beach inside Oakledge Park, a city park run by Burlington Parks, Recreation and Waterfront at the west end of Flynn Avenue in Burlington's South End. The park sits on the Lake Champlain shore with a view west across the lake to the Adirondacks. It has two swimming spots: Blanchard, a strip of sand on the north side of the park, and Oakledge Cove, a smaller and rockier pocket to the south. The land was a farm, a shipyard, a private estate and later a resort before the city bought the core of it in the 1970s, and old foundations and mooring pins in the ledges still show that history.

Getting there is easy. Drive to the end of Flynn Avenue and turn into the park lot, or come in on the Burlington Greenway bike path, which runs straight through the park and passes right behind the beach. From downtown the path follows the lakeshore south past Lakeside Avenue, and from the south it enters the park off Austin Drive. Walking or biking in costs nothing. Cars pay to park: the city charges $3 per hour from May through October 31, and parking is free from November through May. You pay by license plate at the kiosks or in the ParkMobile app (zone 5818). Vehicles with handicapped plates or tags park free, Green Mountain Passports are honored here, and a seasonal pass good at Oakledge, North Beach and Perkins Pier costs $55 for Burlington residents and $75 for everyone else.

The beach is a short sand shoreline that slopes gently into shallow water, which makes it popular with families and waders. It faces open lake, so wind from the west can push in chop. Lake Champlain stays cold well into June, and swimmers are urged not to go alone early in the season. There is no lifeguard on duty at Oakledge, so you swim at your own risk. Seasonal restrooms, accessible toilets and drinking water are near the beach and the main parking area.

Water quality is the thing to check before you go. Burlington inspects its beaches every day from Memorial Day through Labor Day: staff look for cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) starting at 11 am and recheck three or four times a day, and E. coli samples are taken Monday and Thursday with results on Tuesday and Friday. The Department of Public Works also closes swim areas after combined sewer overflows, which usually follow heavy rain. Both Oakledge beaches have been closed several times in summer for algae blooms, sometimes on busy holidays. The city posts each beach as green (open), orange (alert, keep kids and pets out) or red (closed) on its live Beach Closure Tracker. Blooms are especially dangerous for dogs.

Oakledge is Burlington's biggest South End park and there is plenty to do out of the water. The Forever Young Treehouse is a wheelchair-accessible treehouse reached by a ramp, and there is a playground with universal access features, the Burlington Earth Clock (a ring of standing stones that marks the solstices), bocce, tennis and beach volleyball courts, and covered picnic shelters with grills. About 1.3 miles of easy trails loop through woods, along the rocky lakeside cliffs and past the Upper and Lower Wetlands, which are good spots for birdwatching. Dogs must be leashed on the trails, and fires and camping are not allowed.