We began our search of summer camping locations early this year as most of the awesome spots tend to book out very early in the year, if not the year before. What we’ve found is quite a few places where we have the camping that we love and a summer beach to hang out at.
Birch Bay State Park was the third or fourth place on our list due to the fact that it was pretty close to home (about 2 hours away) and it had 75+ spaces available for a stay. There were no cabins like Cama Beach, but it had better beach access than Camano Island State Park. So, it was a bit of a mix of the two.
The weather at the beach was windy enough to do a bit of kite flying, but not so bad that it was freezing. This shot was actually done while I had the kite tethered about 3 feed from my head and I was trying to shoot it while it was moving all over. It was a challenge, but I like the result, especially with the sun behind the rear of the kite.
The beach front gave plenty of area to play in the sand, though much of the water line was rock. It appears to be one of the best places for clamming around as there were quite a few people out digging for them in the time we were there.
The sand didn’t lend itself to making castles, but we did a pretty good job making some driftwood and rock houses to entertain ourselves.
Off the path away from the beach, there is a small ‘river’ that runs between the campground and the beach. A small bridge allows direct access from the edge of the camping area right over to the recreational area at the bottom of the hill. It’s a short walk to get there and couldn’t be much easier. Overall, Birch Bay is on our short list for summer stops.
We didn’t stay late enough in the day to see the sunset, but we could only imagine how amazing it must be to see it over the water. It brought back memories to our road trip last summer and the gorgeous sunsets we saw on the Oregon coast.
Overall, we can’t wait to make Birch Bay State Park a stop on our summer road trips again and will probably be booking a camping site here later in the summer!
