Tuscarora State Park Beach is the public sand swimming beach on Tuscarora Lake, a 96-acre reservoir inside Tuscarora State Park in Rush Township, Schuylkill County. The park covers 1,618 acres and is run by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). The beach sits on the north shore of the lake in the day-use area, looking straight across the water at Locust Mountain, whose wooded slope drops almost directly into the south side of the lake.

The park's mailing address is 687 Tuscarora Park Road, Barnesville, and the hamlet of Barnesville is about a mile northwest of the beach. Tamaqua is roughly 3 miles to the east, and the park is a short drive from PA Route 54 and Interstate 81. Follow Tuscarora Park Road into the day-use area, where several parking lots sit just above the beach next to the picnic pavilions, restrooms and the boat rental building. DCNR notes there is no ADA parking close to the beach itself, only a drop-off, although the beach is listed as ADA accessible. The short Hill Trail also connects the park office on the hill to the picnic area and beach.

The swim area is a roped section marked with buoys off a sand beach that is partly shaded and gets fresh sand from time to time (it was replenished before the 2023 season). The water inside the buoys is no deeper than 5.5 feet, so it works well for kids and waders. Tuscarora Lake is a warmwater lake, so by July it is comfortable for swimming, and there is no current to deal with. Lifeguards have not been posted at Pennsylvania state park beaches like this one since 2008. You swim at your own risk and are expected to stay inside the marked area and follow the posted rules. Smoking, including e-cigarettes, is banned on the beach and in the water, with designated spots set aside nearby.

Swimming season runs from late May to mid-September, 8 a.m. to sunset, and the beach is effectively closed to swimming outside those dates. It is free. Pennsylvania state parks charge no entrance fee and there is no beach fee at Tuscarora. Paid permits apply only to things like boat mooring, pavilion reservations and the overnight cottages and yurts.

Water quality is the main thing to check before you go. DCNR samples the lake through the season and closes the beach when results come back high for E. coli or when harmful algae is detected. Closures happen often here: the beach shut down three separate times in 2025 (early June, July 1 to July 16, and again in late August), and three times in 2022, when harmful algae found on August 19 ended the swimming season early. Closures are posted at the park entrance and on the beach, and they show up in the alerts on the park's DCNR page. If Tuscarora is closed, nearby Locust Lake State Park, managed by the same office, has its own beach.

The lake is open to rowboats, canoes, kayaks, paddleboards and electric motorboats at slow, no-wake speed, so the swim area stays quiet. There is a launch and an accessible fishing pier in the day-use area, and rowboats and other small boats are rented in summer next to the beach. People fish here for bass, pickerel, muskellunge, catfish, yellow perch and stocked trout. Back from the shore are picnic pavilions, a playground, wide trails on old logging roads that run into the woods and meadows, and an overnight area with camping cottages and yurts.