Oakdale Beach is the small sand swimming beach on Oakdale Lake, inside Oakdale Park on the northeast side of the City of Hudson in Columbia County. The 14-acre park is owned by the city and run by the City of Hudson Department of Youth, which describes it as free and open to the public. The lake covers about 4 acres and is fed by springs. It is not a natural pond. Local historians trace it to 1914 and 1915, when the Oakdale Park Improvement Company created the lake as part of a new residential subdivision it was laying out east of downtown.

North 6th Street runs along the west edge of the park and ends at Glenwood Boulevard just above the beach. A short service drive off North 6th leads to a small parking lot beside the basketball courts, a few steps from the sand. Most visitors from town simply walk, since the park sits a few blocks north of Warren Street and roughly a mile from the Hudson Amtrak station on the riverfront.

The swim area is a roped section of the lake directly off the beach, split into a shallow end and a deeper end. City rules allow swimming only while a lifeguard is on duty, and the Youth Department repeats this on its own pages. The guarded season usually runs from around Memorial Day to late summer, with public hours in the afternoon (lifeguards were scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. daily in past seasons), but the start date depends on the city budget and on water testing, so check the posted schedule each spring. Outside guarded hours the beach is still open for sitting and picnicking, but not for swimming. There is no entrance or parking fee. The department also runs a free six-week summer day camp at the park for Hudson resident children, so expect groups of campers on summer weekdays.

Water quality is the main thing to check before you go. The Youth Department calls the lake eutrophic, meaning nutrient rich, with fast plant and algae growth that it says is manageable. In August 2024 the city closed the lake to all water contact after signs of a harmful blue-green algae bloom. The state's test passed again in early June 2025 and swimming resumed, but in late July 2025 the city cancelled its remaining swim lessons and closed the deep end, leaving only the shallow end open for the rest of that summer. Floating algae mats can collect along the rope line close to shore. Skip the water and keep dogs out if you see scum, paint-like streaks or green film, and call the Youth Department at (518) 828-0017 for the current status.

Volunteers with Friends of Oakdale Lake, now part of Friends of Hudson Youth, have spent several years testing the water with Great Ecology and the Columbia Land Conservancy, with grant money from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. That work has paid for solar-powered aerators, harvesting of submerged weeds and beach improvements, and a fountain in the swim area has been proposed. The city also mentions fishing and boating on the lake.

Beyond the beach, Oakdale Park has a half-mile loop trail through the woods around the lake, two basketball courts and a small playground, all open to the public. Underhill Pond lies just north across Glenwood Boulevard. In fall the wooded shoreline turns bright, and in 2020 the city backed a floating sculpture installation on the lake.