Tobyhanna State Park spreads across 5,440 acres of the Pocono plateau in Coolbaugh Township, Monroe County, sitting at roughly 2,005 feet of elevation. That altitude matters. Summer afternoons here run cooler than the valleys an hour south, and the 170-acre Tobyhanna Lake at the center of the park holds that mountain chill well into July. The sand beach sits on the lake's eastern shore, directly on the route of the blue-blazed Lakeside Trail.

The water is the first thing people notice. Tobyhanna Creek, which feeds and drains the lake, runs tea-colored from tannic acid leached out of the hemlock forest and the bogs it passes through, and the lake carries that same amber stain. Stand waist deep and your feet take on a coppery cast. It is clean water, just dark. Tannin-stained water also absorbs sunlight rather than letting it pass through, which is part of why the shallows here warm up quickly. The name suits the landscape: Tobyhanna comes from a Native American phrase meaning a stream whose banks are fringed with alder.

The beach opens the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and runs to mid-September, 8:00 a.m. until sunset. There are no lifeguards. DCNR posts it plainly as swim at your own risk, so anyone bringing weak swimmers or small children should plan on being in the water with them. A bathhouse at the beach has flush toilets and changing areas, and showers are available for a fee. Smoking is prohibited on the sand and in the swimming area. Pennsylvania state parks do not charge an entrance fee, so the swim, the parking and the trails all cost nothing.

Most visitors build a longer day around the swim. The Lakeside Trail runs 5.1 level, largely graveled miles completely around the lake and passes both the beach and the campground, which makes it an easy walk straight off a towel. The Range Trail adds 2.75 yellow-blazed miles through Bender Swamp and a boulder field, and the red-blazed Frank Gantz Trail heads toward neighboring Gouldsboro State Park through the Black Bear and Bender Swamps Natural Area. On the water, an electric-motors-only rule and a slow no-wake limit keep things quiet for kayaks, canoes and paddleboards, and there are 60 overnight mooring spaces. The lake is a warmwater fishery holding bass, pickerel, yellow perch, catfish and sunfish, with brook and brown trout stocked. A 140-site campground sits near the shore.

One thing to check before driving out. DCNR has announced a full replacement of the 1950s dam and spillway, and the project calls for draining Tobyhanna Lake completely. The work has slipped well past its first announced schedule, and at the start of 2026 the Fish and Boat Commission was still lifting catch limits in anticipation of the drawdown rather than during it, so there is no reliable published start date. DCNR currently still lists the beach as open for its normal season. What is not in doubt is what happens once draining begins: the lakebed goes entirely off limits behind fencing and warning signs, in part because this ground was once the Tobyhanna Military Reservation, munitions were tested here, and the lakebed has never been scanned for unexploded ordnance. The Army Corps of Engineers is to sweep it as the project moves along. Call the park office at 570-894-8336 before planning a swim.