Eagle Creek Park Beach is a sand swimming beach on the east shore of Eagle Creek Reservoir, about 11 miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis. The park around it covers roughly 3,900 acres of forest and 1,400 acres of water, which makes it one of the largest municipal parks in the country. The reservoir exists because of a 1957 flood on Eagle Creek that killed six people in Speedway. The dam was finished in 1968, the water came up by 1970, and the park opened in 1972. It is still a working water supply, with roughly 10 million gallons a day drawn off for the Indianapolis system.

The swim area is small and clearly marked, 200 feet along the sand and 50 feet out from shore. Lifeguards staff it, and Indy Parks is blunt in its park rules: swim at the beach only when lifeguards are present. Past the buoys the reservoir is open to boats up to 26 feet with motors no larger than 10 horsepower, so there is real traffic on the water outside the swim zone.

The season is what most people get wrong. This is not a Memorial Day through Labor Day beach. Eagle Creek's beach typically runs from June into late July or early August, and in 2026 it opened in mid June and closed for the year on August 2. Call before you drive out. When it is open, the beach is closed Mondays and runs 11am to 6pm Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, 11am to 8pm Friday, and noon to 6pm Sunday, with Tuesday and Wednesday closing an hour early on concert nights. Single days also get pulled for events. In 2026 the beach was closed all day June 20 for a rowing regatta and opened late on July 18 for a sprint triathlon.

Swimming itself costs nothing. You pay at the park gate: $6 per vehicle for Marion County residents, $8 for everyone else, $1 if you walk or bike in, and $15 for a bus. Annual passes and the Eagle Creek Park Foundation pass both cover unlimited gate entry. Gates run dawn to dusk, which from June through August means 7am to 9:30pm. The beach sits at 7602 Eagle Beach Drive and is reached from either the 56th Street entrance at 5700 N Eagle Creek Parkway or the 71st Street entrance at 7100 N Eagle Creek Parkway off I-65. The park office is 317-327-7110, and the swim area has its own line at 317-327-7132.

Paved lots sit a short walk from the sand, with restrooms, a bathhouse and picnic tables on a first come basis. Free life jackets are available to borrow. The Beach Shelter holds 200 people and rents through the park office for $300 in county and $355 out of county. Coolers and picnic food are fine. Glass, alcohol, dogs and inflatable floats are not. A free summer concert series plays on the shore beside the beach.

Water quality is the hazard worth tracking here. Indy Parks samples the swim area against Indiana's standard of 235 E. coli colonies per 100ml, and readings climb after heavy rain and hot weather, often from waterfowl and stormwater runoff. The swim area closed on June 25, 2025 for elevated E. coli and reopened a week later on July 2. After a big storm, check the Eagle Creek Park Facebook page or call the park before loading the car.

Just under a mile north, the marina and Eagle Creek Outfitters rent kayaks, canoes, paddleboards, paddleboats, pontoons and sailboats from April through October, and about 30 miles of trails run through the woods behind the beach.