Schoolhouse Beach

The island, thus the beach, is just a short trip away.
First a 30 minute ferry ride. Ferry departs every hour on the hour, 6am-​5pm, I believe. Boarding started about 10 minutes before departure. $ 66.50 for 3 adults and a car, round trip. Loading of large trucks resulted in a minimal delay of about 5min for the return trip. It also made for some sketchy loading, with squeezing a car in — well, sort of in.
Then, roughly a 15 minute drive to the parking area. It is important to note that you will need to allow 2 hours for even a brief visit to the beach. A 1pm ferry to Washington Island will get you there about 140, the drove out puts you there before 2pm and half an hour spent on the beach, then a visit to the tower, gets you back for loading the 3pm.
The smooth rock beach is interesting to see. We were the only ones there when we went, perhaps making it extra serene. The water is clear and gives the appearance that the rocks go out quite some distance. I don’t know that I would drop $ 100 and use 2 – 3 hours of the day to do it again, but I can say I’ve been, and I don’t regret going.
Note: Do not take any rocks if you visit. There are signs everywhere and almost every review warns against it. Leave them be, so future generations can enjoy it too.
We came early in the season and found that most everything was still closed or closed early. It feels like we spent a lot of time for something so brief, memorable, but brief.

This is a beautiful beach with a nice little park. It is on a Bay on the north end of the island. The beach is clean and adorned with flat, round, smooth stones. Signs in the park warn that it is unlawful to remove any of these stones. This is a great beach for a picnic or a swim on a hot summer day. They say there is a shipwreck out a ways that can be explored by scuba diving.

Interesting beach with flat rounded white lime stones (1 to a few inches long) instead of sand. It is very non-​commercialized (no food nor boat rentals, etc.). Our family enjoyed searching for interesting looking stones at Schoolhouse beach. However be aware that locals are extremely sensitive to tourists removing a single stone from the beach.
As we drove in I read «Removal… substantial… stones… prohibited…» (a very different meaning than what the sign actually reads «removal or substantial disturbance of beach stones… prohibited»).
When we prepared to leave after telling my kids they could each take a small souvenir rock (boy was I mistaken), a woman blocked our exit with her van, photographed our license plate and informed us that there is a $ 250 per stone fine and she would call the police and have our vehicle searched at the ferry if we returned to the beach.
(She recovered her stones and I lost my desire to ever return to that beach. However after a friendly on-​line chat with another resident of Washington Island, I am more sympathetic to the Islanders frustration at slowly losing their unique stones and desire to protect their beach. We discussed how improved signage might help educate tourists.)
Schoolhouse beach is unique and picturesque and may be worth a visit if you like natural and un-​commercialized and if the $ 72 (round trip [1]) we paid to ferry a vehicle and family of four is in your budget (and if you remember to not take any rocks!) If you’re looking for a more traditional beach in Door County, consider also Nicolet beach at Fish Creek — a beautiful standard sand beach with boat rentals, a shallow roped off swimming area, reasonably priced quality food and friendly people.
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Great little beach with pretty limestone rocks and an area to grill out with tables. Worth checking out if you’re on the island! The bugs were pretty bad when we were there so be sure to spray beforehand. Parking is strange but they do have spots. Beautiful beach!

Beautiful, unique, but disappearing. When I was little (30 years ago) the rocks reached up to the parking lot, now they are only halfway up the beach. One souvenir at a time this beach is being stolen. It is a treasure, visit it before it is gone.

This beach is worth a visit just for the view. Made up entirely of white roundish rocks, on a serene part of the big lake. If you have trouble walking though you may want to be sure to drive down the BIG hill to get to it. Our visit in mid-​September was disrupted by a tour bus with a LOUD loudspeaker blaring and a handful of tourists that behaved unbelievably obnoxiously, marching right by a «private property» sign and fence off to the side, yelling and throwing rocks in the water. Depressing to witness. So, couldn’t make a guarantee for a peaceful visit.

We love to visit Washington Island when we visit Door County. On the Island a must stop is Schoolhouse Beach. What makes this place so unusual and beautiful are the glacial polished lime stone stones. Instead of sand the white smooth stones cover the entirety of the beach. They range in size from pebble like to large boulders. There are always rock formations that people before have made that line the beach adding to its beauty.
The beach is free and open to the public. If you can come during the week (a less busy time) I would recommend it. The beach loses some of its serenity when crowded on the weekends.
The stones get warmed by the sun and the water is as clear as I have ever seen a lake be.
My daughter loves to come here to make rock formations of her own as well as to skip stones into the water. Swimming is allowed but at your own risk.
There are picnic areas, restrooms, and water/​soda machines but no food served at the beach.

4 stars and not 5 since the beach is often overcrowded with obnoxious tourists and you aren’t supposed to grill in the old campsite spaces (now often used to park cars) anymore. That being said, Schoolhouse is a natural wonder and the crystal clear water is a brisk and beautiful place to swim.

OK School house beach, on Washington harbor. The glacial polished lime stone stones are special! yes NO SAND! been tossing stones/​skipping stones into the harbor for over 45 years, my kids have too! still every winter the winter storms push the smooth polished stones back on shore for the next season visitors!
Special the crystal clear waters =gin clear, offer great snorkle/​scuba dive area as the harbor sports several ship wrecks and several old town piers now under water but many artifacts can still be seen today! this area is great for a picnic, swim later year as waters warm up, photos, bath rooms on site.

So beautiful, so unique. The rocks are like white plaster pebbles with no rough edges. Actually very nice to sit on. The water is clear and cool, the view is amazing. I

Very nice and popular beach up on the north shore of the island.
Why’s it so special? There’s no sand — only rocks (about 1″-3″ big) throughout the beach and park. Some people say it’s hard to walk on, but I don’t mind it. Bring sandals if you think you’ll have an issue.
The water gets warm enough to swim during summer — and it’s usually pretty busy. Bring some food and make an afternoon of it!

Beautiful