The beach sits at the end of Grandview Road in the village of Craig Beach, on the east shore of Lake Milton about fifteen miles west of Youngstown. It runs roughly 600 feet along a shallow, gently sloping bank, with restrooms, change booths, outdoor showers, a playground, and basketball and sand volleyball courts set back in the grass behind the sand. Parking is right at the top of the beach. There are no lifeguards, swimming is at your own risk, and pets are not allowed on the sand at any time of year.

Lake Milton is a big lake for northeast Ohio, about 1,700 acres of water inside a 1,006 acre park. It is not natural. The city of Youngstown bought 3,416 acres of the Mahoning River valley in 1910 to build a municipal water supply, and the 2,800 foot dam that impounded 1,640 acres of it was finished in 1913. Craig Beach grew up on the east shore as a resort village, and for decades it had an amusement park with a roller coaster, a midway and excursion boats running out to the middle of the lake. That era ended a long time ago, but the village kept the name. The dam was opened in the spring of 1986 for reconstruction, draining the lake entirely, and when it refilled the state dedicated the shoreline as Lake Milton State Park in 1988.

Water quality is monitored through the Ohio BeachGuard program from Memorial Day through Labor Day, with advisories posted at the beach and online when bacteria counts run high after heavy rain. The best swimming is generally mid-June through August, when the shallow east shore warms fastest. The lake is drawn down roughly eight feet starting October 15 each fall and repooled beginning March 15, so the beach is a mudflat through the winter.

Beyond the swim area, the lake is set up for boats. Three public ramps serve it, at Miller's Landing, Robinson Point and Pointview, and there are three designated boat swim areas out in open water for people anchoring off. A marina operates in the Harry Meshel Picnic Area near the lighthouse. On land the park has an eighteen hole disc golf course and an archery range, and a Storybook Trail runs a half mile from the beach parking lot with pages of a children's book posted along the way.

Park hours are 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. The Mahoning River below the dam is a decent smallmouth fishery, and the lake itself gets walleye, crappie and channel catfish. Berlin Lake is ten minutes south on Route 534 if the beach here is crowded, and Youngstown with Mill Creek Park is twenty minutes east.