Beach · Lake Michigan · Illinois
Rainbow Beach
A public beach on Lake Michigan in Cook County, Illinois, 0.34 miles of shore. The state samples the water for bacteria daily through a 101-day swim season.
The beach
On the record
- Water
- Lake Michigan
- Location
- Cook County, Illinois
- Length
- 0.34 miles
- Owner
- Public
- Access
- Public Access
- Water sampling
- Yes — daily in the swim season
- Swim season
- 101 days, as reported
- Monitoring tier
- Tier 1 — the state’s highest monitoring priority
- Water quality standard
- E. coli, geometric mean: 300 CFU per 100 mL
- EPA beach ID
- IL814025
- Coordinates
- 41.7610° N, 87.5540° W to 41.7590° N, 87.5480° W
As the state reported it to EPA for the 2025 season. Sampling schedules change year to year. How beach monitoring works →
Down the shore
Nearest Michigan beaches
- South Shore Beach0.7 mi · sampled · IL
- 63rd Street Beach2.0 mi · sampled · IL
- 57th Street Beach2.5 mi · sampled · IL
- Calumet South Beach3.4 mi · sampled · IL
- 49th Street Beach3.6 mi · IL
- Hammond Marina West Beach4.8 mi · sampled · IN
Straight-line distance.
Off the beach
What to fish on Lake Michigan
Source
Facts on this page are from the EPA BEACON profile for beach IL814025, the record Illinois files under the federal BEACH Act, retrieved 2026-10-10. The county is placed from the beach’s own coordinates. A blank field means the record is silent. Parking, fees, lifeguards and dog rules are set by whoever runs the beach; check with them before you go.
Chart shoreline generalized from Natural Earth (public domain). Not for navigation. Something wrong or missing? Write to contact@greatamericanlakes.com.