Heyburn Park Swim Beach is the designated swimming area inside Heyburn Park, one of the developed recreation areas the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District, runs on Heyburn Lake in Creek County, Oklahoma. The lake is a 940-acre flood control and water supply reservoir on Polecat Creek, finished in 1950, with about 52 miles of shoreline set in low sandstone hills, grassland and oak woods. Heyburn Park sits on a peninsula on the lake's south side, a short drive west of the dam, and the beach lines the east side of that peninsula near its north end, below the day-use shelter and picnic tables.

From Kellyville, about five miles to the east, leave OK-66 in town on E0740 Road and follow it about 5.5 miles, then turn right on S 257th W Avenue and bear left onto Heyburn Lake Road, which runs past the dam and the Corps office for two miles before the Heyburn Park entrance on the right. From the Turner Turnpike, the Kellyville exit (203) also works: take S 273rd W Avenue north about three miles to Lake Heyburn Road and the park is half a mile on the right. Day visitors use the parking lots, not campsite pads. The entrance gate is locked from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The beach itself is a long open shoreline with picnic tables and a reservable group shelter beside it. Like most central Oklahoma reservoirs, Heyburn is usually tinted brown from suspended clay, so you will not see the bottom, and depth can change with lake levels after heavy rain when the Corps holds back flood water. Corps material does not mention lifeguards for this beach, so plan on swimming unguarded and keep children within reach. The swim beach is posted alcohol-free and pet-free, and dogs are not allowed on it even though leashed pets are allowed elsewhere in the park.

This is not a free swim. The Corps fee sheet for Heyburn Park lists swimming at $5 per day, collected as a day-use pass that is tied to your vehicle and valid until 11:59 p.m. on the date you buy it. For the 2026 season the Corps says there is no attendant at the Heyburn Park gate shack and no cash or pass sales there, so buy the pass ahead of time on Recreation.gov or through its app, where your license plate is recorded. USACE annual and America the Beautiful passes are sold at the Heyburn Lake office, which takes credit cards only. The Tulsa District waives beach and boat ramp day-use fees on a few holidays each year, as it did July 3 to 5, 2026.

Water quality is the main thing to check before a summer swim. Corps rangers sample the swim beach for E. coli and retest when a count comes back high, keeping swimmers out until it clears, so look for posted signs at the entrance and call the Heyburn Lake office at 918-247-6391 if heavy rain has just passed through. Motorboats and water skiers use the open lake, so stay inside the beach area. Water and showers are shut off in the off-season.

Heyburn Park also has 46 electric campsites, a two-lane boat ramp with a courtesy dock, a playground and restrooms with showers, so it works well as a camping base. Sheppard Point, the Corps park reached from OK-33 on the far side of the lake, has its own swim beach and a multi-use trail, and the Corps manages a public hunting area of more than 6,000 acres around the lake.