pearl lake

I have been going to Pearl Lake since they opened in 1963. First for fishing then swimming and camping. My wife and I now have a permanent camp site and live there all summer long. The whole resort is perfectly maintained and it has a first class restaurant along with a snack bar for the beach. The beach is phenomenal.It is our favorite place.

The beach is beautiful and clean. The bathouse is also clean. We loved the marknoff levels of depth for the younger kids as well. Even with those great things. I could not stand the constant ridiculous corrections over the PA. I kept life vest on my 5 year old just to be safe. However he knows how to swim. He wanted to leave as they would not allow him in water past his waist. He was crying mom I know how to swim. Same situation with my 11 year old who has been swimming since diapers. He is on a swim team fo crying out loud. Anytime he got into water over his chest they corrected him. I yelled he knows how to swim. Apparently you are only allowed to wade in the water here. I had to stay on the more shallow ends as I had a toddler with as well. I understand safety as I work in the Emergency Room. This is beyond safety measures. If you can handle this then this is a great place. Not to mention for a family of our 5 it was $40 to just get in. Such a disappointment. We drove 40 minutes, paid $40 just to wade in water.

I went to Pearl Lake with my two daughters today that are 5 and 2 1/2. The beach was nice. Both girls were wearing a life vest, even though my 5 year old is a fairly good swimmer. I understand that the life guards have a job to keep kids safe, but if my daughters went in water any deeper than their waist or the pretended to be swimming, the head life guard would tell them over the loud speaker to go to shallow water. I was never more than 10 feet from them, never on my phone, not drinking alcohol, and always watching. At one point I was in the water with them and the lifeguard said over the loud speaker "would the girls in the life vests with their mother please move closer to shore." At no point in the day did more than five minutes pass without the life guard coming over the loud speaker for something. Absolutely ridiculous, I will not go back.

I didn't pick Pearl Lake, it picked me. I had to travel to Pearl Lake for the Open Water Presentations during my Instructor Examination. I was hesitant about diving in a new location for such a stressful dive, but there wasn't much I could do about it.Check in for the diving was very smooth and organized. The location has good control procedures to make sure all divers make it out of the water. I was very happy to see that in place. Our entry point was a long drive around the lake to the back side. This gave us the isolation we needed to complete the PADI IE undisturbed.Water quality was clear for an inland lake and warm for Wisconsin. The training platform was very unused. The was a good deal of sediment buildup on it, so we did have to deal with the silting, but if we had time we could have come out the day before and cleared it up.Following the examination we went to the bar for a celebratory drink. Organization there was not as well layer out, certain drinks were only available at certain bars, you couldn't actually stay in the bar and drink. I was rather disappointed with this portion of the operation.Parking was great. Access was easy. and the facilities were clean. I would consider diving at this inland location again.

We were recently at Pearl lake for Scuba diving and really enjoyed it. There are allot of sunken treasures to look at for all levels of divers.

Just tried to eat - 5:00pm- we get an older lady says "can u eat outside we hv a big group coming in an hour?" Really we are paying ppl not dogs! Never ever will I eat or patron this place!

Let me start with the bad-the rules and regulations are insane! They aren't hard to follow, just kind of odd and unnecessary. The staff is mostly friendly, but they watch you like they're waiting for you to do something wrong. They literally have a guy on top of the restaurant deck watching the beach, and he stops the music to make very loud, very public announcements to tell you what you, specifically, are doing wrong. It's quite embarrassing when they call you out in front of 200 people and everyone stares at you to see what you did wrong. If you can get over it being something comparable to a prison yard, then you'll have a great time! It's only an hour away, and the beach is immaculately nice, as is the bath house and the campsites. They tried to give us a hard time about having a couple people come separately (because of work) but they eventually reasoned with us and everything was fine. All in all, we'll definitely come here when we have nothing better to do. Once you get used to the funny rules, it's not a horrible time.

We really enjoyed our time at pearl lake. They've sunk quite a few things and the walk in area was very nice. Low levels of fish though...tons of zebra mussels. But for a quick trip to give some education this was a nice affordable option.

If you are a scuba diver and your stuck living here in the mid west. Pearl lake is just what you need to get away. Cant find a better place where you can dive all day for $20.00. Very cool stuff to look at under water sub, boat, truck ect. Very clean lake and great visability.Very clean and well kept lake and property. The after 6pm dining is great. Very good value for the $. Like stepping back in time large portions salad soup potato ect. Glass of water at the table even basket of crackers. I recommend the fried chicken,and the onion rings for an appitizer. The appitizer will fill you up so share with a couple friends. Had a great day and look forward to our next trip to Pearl lake.

Recently, my husband and I completed our Advanced Scuba Diving Certification. It culminated with the deep dive portion achieved diving a shipwreck in Lake Michigan. The experience convinced us we’d like to do a lot more wreck diving, but our next time on the Great Lakes we’ll be on our own, with no instructor to watch over us.So we took the recommendation of our Milwaukee dive shop, The Scuba Diver Store/Great Lakes Diving, and went to Pearl Lake to further hone our skills. It was the perfect choice and an unexpected treat. Located in South Beloit, IL smack on the Wisconsin/Illinois border, it’s only an hour drive from Milwaukee, Madison or Chicago. Beginning it’s life as a quarry, Pearl Lake has been owned by the same family since 1963, when they began developing a lovely 35 acre paradise where you’d least expect one. It now features a campground, seasonal park homes, a restaurant and bar, (only open on weekends) and a well-laid out swimming area and beach with a large deck, snack bar and DJ entertainment on the weekends. All this is cordoned off from the bulk of the lake, though, so none of it intrudes on the diving experience. This small diving paradise has obviously been set up by people who know and love scuba. One of it’s most appealing aspects is that there are four distinct areas to dive, each with numerous fascinating things sunk at varying depths. Each of these, like an airplane or sub, are marked by buoys at the surface with descent lines down to each. Most are large and open enough to swim through to practice wreck penetration. You can dive them individually or explore one after the other by swimming at a depth of 15 to 20 ft. — a great way to practice underwater navigation.The east shore, where we dove in early August, has a number of small boats and dive platforms and a 33 ft. replica of a WWII U-boat sub. Also, “a Lake Michigan patrol boat can be found on the sandy slope in about 25 feet of water and a bit further to the south, the lake’s largest wreck, the 45 foot long “Thora Ann”, a classic Great Lakes fishing tug, rests at depths of 30 – 40 feet.”“Every area of the lake represents a healthy natural habitat and an ideal freshwater ecosystem to be explored. Huge smallmouth and largemouth bass, walleye and yellow perch and rainbow trout cruise through lush weed beds. On occasion, one of the lake's 20-30 lb. channel catfish will add an extra heartbeat or two for the diver surprised by one approaching out of the gloom.”I quote directly from the Pearl Lake website because I highly recommend you check it out under the “DIVING” area of the site. Very well written, it has a plethora of information and photos to give you a complete picture of what to expect not only in sunken attractions, but seasonal water temps, thermocline levels, rules and regulations, etc.Other areas and highlights are the north shore, featuring a 33 ft. school bus, 30 ft. cabin cruiser, statues, and underwater railroad tracks left over from the lakes’ days as a quarry. The west shore offers more small boats and another cabin cruiser, a “steam shovel” and a Beechcraft twin-engine airplane. The south end is where the deepest part lies, ranging from 60 ft. to an 85 foot “hole” with platform at the bottom used for deep dive training by dive schools who frequent the lake with their students. Since we didn’t take advantage of getting a tank refill on premises, which is another big plus, we have three more trips to look forward to before we’ve experienced them all. We dove on a Tuesday and had the lake pretty much to ourselves. I can’t attest to how crowded it may be on the weekends, but as described, there are enough areas to explore that there should be room for everyone who has found this inland diving paradise. Be sure to bring your certification card.

Been going to Pearl for 23 years diving. Started camping and hitting the beach last few years. The staff and the rules and regulations can be a bit over burdensome. The check in was fine but the limits on people, tents, autos, passes at beach, items allowed on beach, pets, areas kids can swim, overhead crawl swim required, etc was difficult to keep up with. We get 4 plus campsites and 16 people so some frustration is to be expected.The beach and lake are the gem of the facility, very clean and safe for all ages. Showers snack bar and restaurant are well kept. The crowd and permanent residents were very friendly and enjoyable to be around.We are going back but only once a year..

This 4th of July we decided to do a camping trip with two other families. We choose Pearl Lake camp grounds in South Beloit, IL. We had three camp sites together which included electricity, water spiket, a fire pit and picnic table. In addition there was a very clean and well kept bathhouse with electricity for hot showers and hair care. The camp grounds were clean and we had alot of space for our three family to spread out and play ball, bags and nighttime flashlight games. The owners of this place take great care in making sure there is no loud obnoxious behavior going on and all families are ensured a safe and enjoyable adventure. The beach that is next to the camp sight is awesome fun! Restaurant, Tiki Hut with DJ and house special drinks. We had a blast. Something for the adults and alot for the kids to do.

This is a nice place to go to but the morale of every employee is horrific. My entire family was treated badly from check-in, to food order, to asking where the restrooms are located. Management here must not be good.

Nice man made beach, but way over priced and over crowded. I would rather drive 45 minutes to lake michigan. Loud music blares all day, sand is all trucked in so its like a mix of sand, dirt and gravel. The price is absurd. like 20$ for one person. They have an advantage being the only beach around. Which really isnt a beach at all. Pearl lake is also the on ly place around for scuba diving and training. I guess thats not too bad. As far a a beach for sun and fun, its not terrible, but bring your wallet and make sure its full of money.

Pearl lake is tucked away off of hwy 51 and surrounded by industrial plants, yet when you pull up you immediately find yourself thinking of old school family vacation days. Reminds me of the camp in Dirty Dancing.