Schoolhouse Beach

This lovely lakeshore beach has no sand but rather smooth limestone rocks that pleasantly massage one’s feet while walking. Conversely, this weird lakeshore beach has smooth limestone rocks that might hurt one’s feet so you should wear flip-flops if you want to walk to the water.

No matter how sensitive the feet, Schoolhouse Beach is the perfect spot for people who don’t like getting sand in their bathing suits. Located on Wisconsin’s isolated Washington Island, and one of only five similar sand-less beaches worldwide, the shore is named for a one-room wooden schoolhouse that used to exist nearby but which has since been replaced by a picnic table and barbecue area. The small rocks were glacier-polished over thousands of years and are each small geological treasures. In fact, souvenir hunters carried off so many of the rocks there is now a steep fine for removing one.

Most visitors come simply to swim in the clear water and sunbathe, but people often build cairns and other peculiar sculptures with the stones. When they aren’t trying to skip them along the surface of the water, that is.