Birch Bay State Park

Went to a crab boil in berch bay. What a great park, plenty of rest rooms, picnic tables and fire pits, and great beach area.
Had a fun day, and when I return would love to explore this park more.

It’s not hike in camping, but drive up. Parking space, bathroom, showers that have low water flow, 3 min, 50c. Dirty. Sinks come with foam hand soap, paper towels. It’s good for families. Not to be confused with safe. I heard someone had to chase down someone who took something. … but that’s just what I overheard on the camp ground, not that it happened to me. No camp fires allowed.

This is a nice place on the water to hang and have a Picnic or throw the Frisbee. We usually stop here after Lunch on the way down to Trader Joes in Bellingham.

Very pleasant campground with lots of shady spots. You really have to seek out the ones with the most privacy, but there are some great ones. Bath/​shower rooms for section with sites 1 – 40 is the best.
Easy trail to the beach. Most respect the quiet hours. Camp store has almost everything (except the air pump we needed on a Sunday). Quick drive to small town of Blaine for restaurants, ice cream, bike rental and water park.

Wait for low tide and enjoy the clam digging! Jay check for any red tidev warnings first

As a family of avid shellfishers Birch Bay is one of our favorite places to enjoy a low tide. With a few miles of beach to combe it will be able to provide any outdoor activities you could be looking for.
The parking is plentiful, granted peak summer weekends get full just like most starter parks. They have multiple public bathrooms that are maintained well. Their are public grills and fire pits to ensure your BBQ is a win.
Being pet friendly is a plus too. I have been told that the campgrounds are really fun for a weekend getaway, just be sure to reserve your spot early in the year for the summer time.
Throughout the year clamming is open. Their is a fair amount of razor and butter clams but they are on the small side.
Towards the north end of the beach there are a lots of oysters that can be found on the surface when there is a zero or lower tide.
TIP: Be sure your permit /​licence is current as I have been check by the park Ranger many times. Though friendly will go out of their way to give you a ticket for braking the rules. Example, not shucking oysters and leaving the shells at the beach.
Also a discover pass is required to park here. But towards the north end there is parking on the road outside of the park where you can still wall down to the. Beach
Bring a lunch and make it a day!

Just driving by and decided to take in the beautiful scenery.
We spend an hour there looking for shells and throwing rocks.
Very relaxing time. There was nobody there but us.

Great park! We enjoyed camping in our site, fairly private and well maintained. The kids loved riding bikes around the park on the flat, paved trails. They also enjoyed riding into town where there are some cool little stores to visit and an outdoor book store.
My only problem was the skunks. Come early evening the skunks came out of the culvert near our water tap and kept us away from there. They are quite bold as well, while sitting at the fire one night one came up within 6 feet of us. When we told the volunteer ranger about it she just brushed it off and didn’t want to hear about it.
During the day this place was awesome though!

Birch Bay State Park has got to be the best place to camp and hang out on the beach. I have been going here for almost 15+ years and it has been a family tradition. Camping and crabbing have been the theme of our trips but over the years the crabbing has been replaced with hiking. You will have the regulars and the newcomers but no matter who you are this is a great place. I love walking into town where I visit the toy store as well as the candy shop where you can watch them make it :)
I love camping anywhere but this place holds a special place in my heart and I will always be here on Labor Day.

My family and I camped (lot 71) at this state park. From our camp ground, you can see the water (accessable also by a trail from our site or a 5 minute walk via the regular route). It would had been nice to have more privacy between other sites, but the people (mostly Canadians) were friendly and courteous. Sites were mostly in the shaded area and has that «forest» feel and stayed fairly cool. The fire pit was very good in size.
I was disappointed we had to pay for warm water (shower/​.50÷3 minutes) and rest rooms did not have hand soap. Other than these 2 minor whine, I like this state park a lot. It’s well kept and clean (including the bathrooms). I also felt safe and the convenience store right before the state park entrance is very helpful and «convenient» as it has pretty much anything you’ll need to camp (things you’ve forgotten to bring like seasonings, condiments, fire wood, etc). The locals were also very helpful and friendly.
We will definitely go back!

Good campground. Sites vary from relatively private to right next to someone else. Most campsites are full shade — feels like you are deep in the woods! Easy walk to the large long beach for beach combing or relaxing and enjoying the sun. Lots of picnic areas along the beach with parking. We were in site 106 with a 34′ 5^th wheel. The site was plenty big, but the main loop road had a nasty bend with large trees on either side that required one of us to be out guiding to maneuver through.

Great little campground.
Camp site is walking distance to the beach.
Showers are 50c/​3mins.
No soap in bathrooms.

I love Birch Bay! I am lucky enough to have a friend whose family has had a home right on the bay for years. Its a great place to vacation during the summer. Quite large crowds are found here during the summer months.
This state park only allows visitors to park during the day and you must move up to the campgrounds if you stay here. There is also a $ 10 parking fee which is great for the local community.
If you are lucky when the tide is out there is a lot of sea life to find. The public beach is well worn but if you have access to the private beaches more sea life is found. A bit of a walk down a few miles south on the beach is a blue heron sanctuary.

Overall a great park. The beach is great. The campsites are nice, especially those near the beach.
My main quibble is that at night, when the campsites quiet down, you can hear the oil refinery. It’s sort of creepy and detracts from an otherwise cool park.
Also weirdly there is no soap in the bathrooms — BYOSoap.
Flat and paved — great for bikes/​scooters.

Nice campground. Clean and quiet. Great for taking walks and exploring the shoreline. Limited number of sites with hookups. Had to dry camp in the RV. Great tent sites if you are using a tent. Camped in the north area and it was heavily treed with large cedars. This made it protected, but also made it rather dark and shaded.

We spent the weekend up at Birch Bay and had a great time. While the views are beautiful, the best part was looking through the tide pools at low tide. We found lots of crabs, fish, plants, shells, and … wait for it … a small octopus! A picture is attached.
There are areas of the beach which are rocky, and areas which are sandy and muddy. The rock beach has the best tide pools, but the sandy areas are the best to dig in and look for clams. The kids were amazed by how far the tide moved between low and high tide.
Outside of the beach, there isn’t much around. There’s a water slide park, but it wasn’t opened for summer yet when we were there. A weekend is the perfect duration due to there not being much around.