Waukewan Beach sits at the southeast tip of Lake Waukewan, off Waukewan Street a short way north of Meredith village. It is a municipal beach maintained by the Meredith Parks and Recreation Department, and it is the town beach a visitor can actually drive to. The lot holds about 20 vehicles and parking is free, with no sticker or pass required. That distinction is worth stating plainly, because Meredith's other town beach, Leavitt Beach, restricts parking to vehicles displaying a Meredith Facility Use permit, which the town sells only to Meredith residents and property owners at two for $20. Waukewan Beach carries no such requirement. Restrooms are on site, and a public boat launch is a short distance along the same road.

Lake Waukewan covers roughly 928 acres across Meredith and New Hampton, with Center Harbor holding part of the northern shore. It is a quieter body of water than Winnipesaukee next door, and it fishes as both a cold and warmwater lake, with rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, chain pickerel, horned pout and white perch all recorded. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Dam Bureau holds the level at 540.0 feet above sea level through the summer and 538.5 feet the rest of the year. Water leaving the lake drops about 40 feet into Lake Winnipesaukee through the Waukewan Canal, a 600-foot cut that John Bond Swasey built between 1816 and 1818 to power the mills of Meredith Village.

The rules here are stricter than at an ordinary town beach, and the reason is the water itself. Lake Waukewan is the drinking water supply for Meredith's municipal system, which serves roughly 45 percent of the town's residents through a filtration plant on Waukewan Street. NHDES rule Env-Dw 902.24 protects the whole watershed above the Lake Waukewan dam, covering Ashland, Center Harbor, Holderness, Meredith and New Hampton, and breaking it is a misdemeanor under state law. Among its provisions: nobody may wade, swim or water ski within 400 feet of the Meredith water department intake, pets are not permitted in the water anywhere in the watershed and must be leashed along the shoreline, overnight mooring is prohibited, camping and overnight vehicle use are prohibited, and only charcoal fires or portable propane grills are allowed within 75 feet of the lake.

Meredith's own beach rules add to that list. Dogs, alcohol, glass containers, open fires and coals are all prohibited, children must be supervised by a responsible person, smoking is confined to designated areas, and flotation devices of any kind and recreation equipment in the water are banned outright. That last one catches people out, so leave the inflatables and the beach ball in the car. Groups wanting to reserve the beach for an event go through the Parks and Recreation Outdoor Facility Use Permit, which runs $20 per hour for a private non-Meredith resident and nothing for the town or a Meredith nonprofit. One note on navigation: Meredith's downtown waterfront, including Hesky Park, Scenic Park and the town docks, is on Lake Winnipesaukee and is a different place entirely.