Decorate Your Desktop With Our Beach and Lake Photos

Chicago's Oak Street Beach stretches like a carpet beneath Magnificent Mile skyscrapers. Palm trees dot the sand, and a swath of pebbles lines the Lake Michigan shore.

A boat glides across Chippewa Flowage in the northern lakes of Wisconsin.

Fog wisps across a secluded lake owned by Fair Hills Resort near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

Grasslands surround sand-bottom lakes at Nebraska's Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, home to more than 260 species of birds as well as deer, muskrats and beavers.

Pinwheels spin in the breeze at Kohler-Andrae State Park on the shore of Lake Michigan near Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Head to the heart of the Ozark's vacation zone with a boat trip on vast (and vastly popular) Lake of the Ozarks.

South Dakota's Lake Oahe is one of the best lakes in North America for walleye. From south of Bismarck, the lake (actually a dammed stretch of the Missouri River) flows south for 231 miles to Pierre for a total of 2,250 miles of shore and hundreds of fish-harboring coves.

Waves lap the shore at Stockton Island, part of Wisconsin's chain of Apostle Islands.

Settle in on the beach at South Haven, Michigan, for a lazy day of sun and water.

Read about the Southwest Michigan shore

Limestone bluffs at Kansas' Cedar Bluff Reservoir form a scenic backdrop for water activities.

Many visitors to Minnesota's Voyageurs National Park explore the 30-lake wonderland by houseboat. No roads run through the 218,000-acre park.

The 31st Street Beach offers sweeping views of the Chicago skyline.