Goose Lake Park is a municipal park run by Anchorage Parks and Recreation at 2811 UAA Drive, on the north edge of the University of Alaska Anchorage campus in midtown Anchorage. The lake itself is a small kettle lake, about a third of a mile long, ringed by birch and spruce woods and wetland. It is one of only two lakes in the city with a developed public swim beach (Jewel Lake in West Anchorage is the other), and on the rare warm days of an Anchorage summer the sand on the north shore fills up with families and teenagers.

The park entrance is off UAA Drive just south of Northern Lights Boulevard. A paved lot sits a short walk from the beach, and the Chester Creek Trail and the paved loop around the lake run straight through the park, so plenty of people arrive by bike or on foot from the greenbelt. The beach is on the north shore beside the playground, picnic shelter and basketball courts, with portable toilets nearby.

The swim area is a buoyed section off a sand beach, with shallow water near shore where small children can wade. Lifeguards are gone, though. The city has staffed neither Goose Lake nor Jewel Lake since 2024, and in June 2026 Parks and Recreation said that would likely continue for the foreseeable future because it cannot hire enough guards. The Municipality's own lakes page puts it bluntly: lakes are swim at your own risk, with no lifeguards on duty. Even in July the water is cold by Lower 48 standards, and a 2024 near-drowning at this beach, where a sunbather pulled two girls out of deeper water, is a reminder to keep kids within reach.

Swimming is free. The Municipality lists no entry or parking fee for Goose Lake, and the only rental it mentions is the softball field. The city does not post specific beach hours, so call Parks and Recreation (907-343-4355) with questions about field or shelter use.

Swimmer's itch is a known problem here, as in other Anchorage lakes, mostly from mid to late summer. Towel off hard or rinse after getting out to cut the odds of the itchy rash. The resident geese can also push bacteria counts up after heavy use; the city's monthly summer testing in the mid-2000s found the water quality very good, and that program ended around 2005, so there is no posted bacteria data to check before a swim. Motorboats are banned and so are sailboats, because of low power lines over the water.

Canoes, kayaks and rafts are welcome in the non-motorized small craft area, and the lake is a quick after-work paddle for people in town. Pacific loons often nest on the far south end, so give that shore a wide berth in early summer. In winter the lake freezes, the trails are groomed for skiing, and each December the Anchorage Fire Department cuts a hole in the ice for the Special Olympics Alaska Polar Plunge, which draws hundreds of jumpers.