The 19 Best Swimming Holes in New Jersey

Cheesequake State Park runs an official lifeguarded beach on Hooks Creek Lake, a small man-made lake of about 6 acres that averages roughly 5.5 feet deep. That shallow, calm water makes it a forgiving place to swim for families and casual swimmers, though it's not the spot for deep-water laps.

The park around the swimming hole is the real bonus: it sits in an unusual transition zone where salt marsh, Atlantic white cedar swamp, pine barrens, and hardwood forest all meet, laced with about five miles of marked trails. Lifeguards are on duty Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, and that's the only window when swimming is officially allowed.

If you want a big lake to swim in, Lake Hopatcong is New Jersey's largest freshwater lake, with 45 miles of shoreline and a resort history stretching back to the 1880s. Hopatcong State Park puts you on its southern shore with a sandy, roped-off, lifeguard-supervised beach backed by a full bathhouse.

Stick to the supervised beach: the open lake is explicitly discouraged for swimming because of deep water and heavy motorboat traffic. Visitors say the beach itself is family-friendly but gets crowded on weekends, and the park stops admitting cars once the lot fills, so go early on a hot Saturday.

Atsion Recreation Area gives Wharton State Forest an official lake to swim in, with a lifeguarded beach on Atsion Lake right off Route 206 in the Pine Barrens. Lifeguards work 10am to 5:30pm from Father's Day weekend through Labor Day, and the historic 1826 Atsion Mansion sits right next door if you want a wander between swims.

This swimming hole runs as a supervised, family-oriented operation: inner tubes and rafts are banned, and there's an accessible playground on site. It's popular enough that the site can hit capacity and close temporarily on busy summer days, so an early start pays off.

Maxson Avenue Beach is Point Pleasant's official river beach on the tidal Manasquan River, a badge-required, lifeguarded municipal swimming hole set up squarely for families. Swimming is limited to a designated area marked off by life lines, only while lifeguards are on duty, and kids under 8 have to be accompanied, so the whole operation is built around young swimmers rather than deep-water types.

The site pairs the swim area with a fishing pier and an ADA-accessible playground, and it sits directly next to Riverfront Park, whose separate shoreline is fishing and crabbing only, no swimming. Do not mix the two up when you arrive.

Round Valley Reservoir is New Jersey's largest and deepest body of water, a clear drinking-water reservoir that plunges to 180 feet, ringed by Cushetunk Mountain in Hunterdon County. The swimming hole here is the designated sand-and-gravel beach near the day-use picnic area, a shallow, guarded zone kept well apart from the open lake.

That separation matters. The open reservoir has a grim drowning history, more than 26 fatalities since 1971, and swimming outside the beach is off-limits. Stay inside the marked area, where lifeguards are on duty in summer, and this is a genuinely family-friendly place to swim with clear water and a full beach complex behind you.

Bianchini Beach & Park is a small neighborhood swimming hole in the Presidential Lakes Estates section of Browns Mills, a planned lake community out in the New Jersey Pinelands. The lake has a sandy bottom with a gradual, gentle wade-in and no waves or current, and one visitor summed it up as a nice spot for a jump in the lake in the summer.

Visitors describe the water as surprisingly clear on a good day, though clarity and shoreline vegetation vary with the season, as they do in most Pine Barrens lakes. Pemberton Township runs it as an official seasonal facility from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Lake Marcia is a 20-acre spring-fed lake tucked inside High Point State Park, near the monument marking New Jersey's highest point at 1,803 feet. It's the park's official place to swim, and it comes fully equipped: lifeguard-supervised beach, bathhouse with changing rooms and showers, snack stand, and picnic areas close by.

This is a developed family swim beach, not a backcountry swimming hole, and the rules keep it that way. Flotation devices beyond Coast Guard-approved life jackets are banned, kayaks and paddleboards are barred from this particular lake, and swimming is only sanctioned when lifeguards are actually on duty.

Mount Arlington Municipal Beach, also called the Arthur Ondish Memorial Beach, is the borough's own swim spot on Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey's largest lake. It's a proper lifeguarded town beach rather than a wild swimming hole, which makes it an easy pick for families who want a supervised place to swim in the lake.

The catch is access: this one is primarily for Mount Arlington residents, and you'll need a registered digital beach badge to get in. If you qualify, it's free, open daily 10am to 6pm in season, with lifeguards on weekends starting Memorial Day and daily once school lets out through Labor Day.

Birchwood Lake is one of seven man-made lakes built when Mountain Lakes was laid out as a planned community around a chain of dammed lakes starting in 1910. The borough runs an official swimming beach here, making it a residents-only lake to swim in rather than a public swimming hole.

If you live in Mountain Lakes, it's a classic town-beach setup: buy a seasonal badge at Borough Hall, then swim June through August, with the beach area open sunrise to sunset and staffed hours running 10am to 6pm daily.

The Blue Hole is Pine Barrens legend: a small circular pond, roughly 70 to 130 feet across, that glows strikingly blue and clear in a region where nearly every lake runs tea-colored with tannins. Locals attribute the clarity to a groundwater-fed origin, and the water stays cold, around 50 to 60 degrees even in summer, with depths reputed to reach about 100 feet.

People have used it as an informal swimming hole since at least the 1930s, though swimming here is technically illegal, and this is emphatically not a family spot. Local lore includes drowning warnings, reputed whirlpools, and a soft sugar sand bottom near the edges, and getting there means a long unmarked walk and an unbridged creek crossing through an active hunting area. Confident, experienced swimmers only, and know what you're getting into.

Hooks Creek Lake Beach is the sanctioned, drive-up swimming spot inside Cheesequake State Park, a lifeguarded beach on a small man-made lake rather than any kind of remote swimming hole. The water is calm impounded lake water, and the whole setup is aimed at families: supervised swim area, changing rooms, first-aid station, and a concession stand right at the beach.

Lifeguards run roughly 10am to 6pm from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, and swimming is only permitted while they're on duty. The surrounding park is a nice bonus, with a yellow-blazed trail looping the lake and connecting to a boardwalk near a tidal crabbing area.

Lake Barnegat Beach is Lacey Township's badge-required swim beach on the second lake of the Lake Barnegat lagoon community in Forked River. It is a suburban, lifeguarded place to swim aimed mostly at local residents, calm lake water with no current, plus a Wibit floating inflatable waterpark bobbing offshore for kids who want more than a swim.

This is the opposite of a wild swimming hole, and that is the point. Beach patrol covers the water from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in season, the lake stays protected and family-friendly, and the whole setup is built for easy summer afternoons with children.

Parks Lake Beach is the mapped name for what Rockaway Township officially runs as Mount Hope Beach, a supervised municipal swim beach on a small pond off Mt. Hope Road. It's a residents-only swimming hole, staffed by lifeguards through the summer season, with the shoreline outside the beach area reserved for fishing.

Season badges run $30 per person, with kids age 5 and under free, purchased through the Community Pass system and picked up at the municipal building. The calm pond setting and lifeguard coverage make it a comfortable option for young families, provided you live in the township.

Sunrise Lake Beach Club is the rare lake to swim in that comes with lifeguards on duty every minute swimming is allowed. Run by the Morris County Park Commission on an 8-acre lake inside wooded, 2,213-acre Lewis Morris County Park, it splits the water into a defined shallow area and a deep end, and kids ages 7 to 17 have to pass a swim test before they are allowed past the shallows.

This is a managed county beach rather than a secluded swimming hole, and families are exactly who it serves best: a sandy shoreline, a Zoom Flume inflatable water slide, a Wibit inflatable obstacle course out on the water, and a Toddler Time session on Tuesday mornings in July. It runs Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.

The Cove is Hamilton Township's own swimming beach on Lake Lenape, a Pine Barrens lake on the Great Egg Harbor River with big pines all around and cedar water the color of tea, as one local who grew up swimming here puts it. That tannin-stained water is completely normal for South Jersey, and the setup is anything but wild: lifeguards, a roped-off swim area, and a sandy beach with a shallow shore that suits kids.

It runs as a seasonal, fee-based operation, historically Thursday through Monday, 11am to 6pm in summer. The one real caveat for this swimming hole is blue-green algae, which has forced township swimming bans in some summers, most recently reported in August 2024, so check conditions before you go.

Drewes Beach sits on Lake Parsippany, a roughly 168 acre private lake in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, owned and maintained by the Lake Parsippany Property Owners Association through member dues and volunteer labor. It is a neighborhood lake community amenity rather than a public place to swim, so access is restricted to LPPOA members and their registered guests.

One important thing before you plan a swim here: under the association's current rules, Drewes Beach itself is open daily for sunbathing only, with no swim area or lifeguards. The lake's actual lifeguarded swimming hole is Hoffman Beach, a different beach on the same lake with a protected swim area open daily from around noon to 8pm. Drewes still offers a sandy shoreline, restrooms, swings, volleyball, and horseshoes, plus a boat ramp for paddlers.

Heaters Pond is Ogdensburg's local swimming hole, a small borough-run pond beach tucked into Sussex County's old mining district in the New Jersey Highlands. One first-hand description puts the approach along an old mountain mining road, far off the beaten path, but the beach itself is fully official, groomed, and lifeguarded.

The water is calm, non-flowing pond swimming suited to families, and the borough says it's tested regularly with consistently good results. Two lifeguards are on duty during swim hours, and free swim lessons for residents kick off around July 1 each summer.

Mount Hope Pond is a small dam-impounded pond in Rockaway Township's historic Mount Hope section, an iron-mining district worked from roughly 1710 to 1979. The township runs it as a real freshwater swimming hole, a staffed, badge-required beach that's a completely different experience from their chlorinated Frog Falls Aquatic Park.

Access is limited to Rockaway Township residents with a season beach badge, which runs $30 per person with kids 5 and under free. Lifeguards are on duty during operating hours, and outside the beach area the shoreline is open for fishing, with NJDEP-stocked trout in the pond.

Timber Lake Beach is the neighborhood swimming hole for the Birchwood Lakes Colony Club, a residential lake community in the New Jersey Pinelands that dates to 1954. The lake itself goes back much further, impounded by an 1880s dam originally built for cranberry bogs, and today members swim from a guarded, handicap accessible beach with a dock.

This one comes with a big caveat: it is private and members only, so it is a perk of living in the community rather than a public destination. The club staffs the beach with Red Cross trained lifeguards, and the water near the dock is shallow enough that diving is prohibited.