Port Henry Beach lies on the western shore of Lake Champlain at the north end of Bulwagga Bay, in the hamlet of Port Henry inside the Adirondack Park. The swimming area is a low strip of sand and gravel off Beach Road and Dock Lane, at the foot of the bluff that Main Street climbs. Across the water the Vermont shore rises into the Green Mountains. Look south on a clear day and the Lake Champlain Bridge at Crown Point shows on the horizon.

Who runs the beach matters here, because the answer changed. The Village of Port Henry dissolved on March 31, 2017 after a referendum, and the Town of Moriah absorbed village operations. The beach, the adjoining Champ RV Park and the beach house at 54 Dock Lane are town property now. Older pages describing a village beach are describing a government that no longer exists. Current answers come from the Town of Moriah at 518-546-8631, or the campground office at 518-546-7123.

New York treats a guarded, permitted bathing beach and an unguarded shoreline as two very different things, so the lifeguard question decides whether swimming here is sanctioned. The town posts guards. Board minutes from May 2026 set the season at June 17 through September 1 and record three lifeguards hired; the June 2026 meeting confirmed the beach open with those three on duty. In 2025 the guards worked 11:00 to 6:00, and a $2,000 NY Swims grant paid to open the beach a week early, on June 20.

The Town of Moriah charges nothing to swim here. No day-use fee, resident sticker or separate non-resident rate appears in the town rate sheet or in its board minutes, and parking at the beach lot off Beach Road is free. Camping is the part that costs. Champ RV Park next door sells seasonal, monthly, weekly and daily sites plus new cabins, with rates by phone.

The town keeps kayaks, paddleboards and canoes at the beach for free use, with the rule that anyone under 16 needs a parent along. A public fishing pier reaches into the lake just north of the sand, and the state boat launch sits beyond that, so one short stretch of shore covers swimming, paddling and launching. Do not confuse this with Bulwagga Bay Campsite a couple of miles south. That is a separate Town of Moriah facility with its own fees, and its beach was closed for 2026 with signs posted, which is why swimming moved up here for the season.

Check water conditions before driving. Lake Champlain grows blue-green algae blooms in warm, calm weather, the Lake Champlain Basin Program and New York DEC both track them along this shore, and a bloom has closed the town beach at Bulwagga Bay in the past while Port Henry samples came back clean. A USGS gauge at Port Henry, number 04294413, reports lake level and water temperature and carries a camera pointed at the water. Engineering money is also moving on a Bulwagga Bay shoreline erosion project, so the south end of the bay is a work site rather than a swimming spot.