Centennial Beach, Naperville

Centennial Beach is a public aquatic park located at 500 W. Jackson Avenue in Naperville, Illinois. The Beach is within an abandoned, double quarry alongside the DuPage River. The facility covers almost 6 acres (24,000 m²) of land with a full two acres (8,000 m²) or 6.2 million gallons of open water from Lake Michigan, all tested, re-circulated and chlorinated on site.

Among its features is a sand beach next to the shallow end of the pool which offers a zero-depth entry. At the zero depth area of the pool, there are 2 large water play features which pour water from about 10 feet (3.0 m) up, and water spouts that shoot up water for children to play in and cool off. The shallow end of the pool goes from 0 feet (0 m) to 4 feet (1.2 m), getting deeper as one walks further into the pool. In the 4 feet (1.2 m) area there are 3 lanes for lap swimmers, where Centennial Beach’s swim team, The Mudrats, practice each weekday morning before open swim hours.

The shallow end also has a slide that was added in 2008. The shallow end also has an area called the “channel.” This area is right next to the deep end and the diving boards. In the channel there is a pool lift for people who cannot use the ladders to get into the pool, they can be let in on the lift. The deep end of the beach has 2 floating rafts in the middle for swimmers to swim out to. The deep end also has 4 piers on the sides of the deep end for swimmers to sit and relax on without sitting on the walkway.

The deep end has an NCAA and USS-approved diving complex, which houses two one-meter springboards and one three-meter board.

Centennial beach is open on all non-school days from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Centennial Beach’s open swim hours are 11:00 am – 8:00 pm Monday through Saturday and 11:00 am – 6:00 pm on Sunday. The Beach opens early on Saturdays and Sundays for “Adult Float” which is a time where adults can come in with any sort of floating devices (not allowed during regular open swim time) and swim with them. Adult float is every Saturday and Sunday from 9:00–10:55 am. Every Saturday morning at 7:00 am the Centennial Beach lifeguards train and do drills for 2 hours before the pool opens. In the event of inclement weather, poor conditions, low attendance, or insufficient staffing the manager may close the beach or certain sections of the beach. In mid-August the beach begins to close earlier than usual due to early darkness.

Centennial Beach receives about 2,500 visitors on an average warm summer day. Over the course of a year the beach receives about 155,000. The beach plays host to various athletic events and is known for its nationally competitive lifeguard team.

Work out when and for how long to visit Centennial Beach and other Naperville attractions using our handy Naperville trip planning website.
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