Birch Bay State Park

Birch Bay State Park has a pleasant, wooded campground within walking distance of the rocky shores of Birch Bay. There are no true waterfront camping spots, but many sites have good views of the water. You're certainly close enough to the water to feel the sea breeze and fresh air.

The park is well kept like any Washington State park. The sites are clean. Site sizes vary. You can view pictures and get descriptions of each site using the online reservation system. This is a great feature if you're trying to reserve a spot "site unseen".

Like any nice park by the water the campground gets full on weekends and even during the week in peak season.

Negatives? Can't think of any.

Very nice state park close to Bellingham! Water views, super nice bathrooms and showers. Some of the sites are awkward but level. Pretty place.

Granted we are here during the peak season. However, it is really noisy and sites are very close. We prefer quiet, dry camping but we are visiting friends.

There are two sides to this campground. The side we are on has hookups in the middle surrounded by dry camping on the edges. We are dry camping in 24 which is very large but looks directly into our neighbors campsite. 27 and 29 are large with the most privacy.

The other loop, 75 to 166 seemed less hectic. Some sites had privacy, but most do not. We liked 150 when walking around.

Maybe in the off season we would fill differently. It's great for families. There is a beach, but it is rocky.

Nice quiet campground. Picnic tables and fire pit. Quick walk to the ocean. Corner store just outside park as well. We will stay again.

Very fun park but you will be very close to others. Fun for groups since you'll be by friends. Or last trip had a group that kept everyone up past midnight with music and yelling.

Awesome beach in the summer. Great for walking and biking.

Lovely park, with a lovely campground host and lovely park rangers. The bathrooms were immaculate. Sites were clean (although somewhat muddy due to the nature of winter weather). We basically had the park to ourselves, it was lovely! The water is turned off in the winter- so make sure you've got your own. We worked remotely from site 19- had great T-mobile services. Will definitely come back again! Lovely park, great walk to the beach, lovely views and pretty spacious sites. My husband is a disabled veteran and we camp for free in Washington State Parks. Site quality would have been 5 with water turned on....

We stayed at Birch Bay for 20 days in September/October and it served as a lovely base to visit Bellingham and the area. You're staying in the forest, so it can be a bit dark and cold, but it's also beautiful and the trees protected us from several wind storms that passed through. The gorgeous tidal beach of Birch Bay is this campground's literal backyard and making the short walk from the woods to the shore felt like a luxury every day. The campground was mostly quiet except for occasional leaf blower use by the rangers, which seemed unnecessary.

Check in and reservations were also tricky in the off season (starting Sept 15th) as it's first come first served, but is just based off paper and an iron ranger, so there's possibility for confusion. If you're staying for a while and don't want to reserve every day with cash, the ranger station is staffed (very briefly) at 12pm, so you can pay with card.

The bathrooms were clean with coin-operated showers (50¢ for 3 min) that weren't the best but got the job done.

Site 30 is a lovely spot with extra room. We were able to work remotely every day with both Verizon and AT&T. One of my favorite features of this campground is the incredible bird life, from loons in the bay, to herons in the creek, and huge owls in the trees overhead.

We held our 3rd FamCamp at Birch Bay State Park. Our group occupied sites 17, 18, 20 (dry with amazing water views) and 19, 21 (power & water). Site 19 was huge and we used for most of our meals and nightly campfires. All sites were mostly level, with gravel parking, fire ring with BBQ grate, and picnic table. Campground was clean and bathroom/showers were spotless. The beach area was a short walk down a paved path and the beach itself is amazing! Great for kayaking, paddle boarding, beach combing and swimming. They had lots of picnic tables and BBQ pedestals, playground, and big grassy open areas. Will definitely be back!

I drove in at dusk and wasn’t clear on how it worked. It was self registration. I parked in a $$ spot, but worked out to switch to a different one the next morning, with a very friendly and accommodating park ranger. The sites are very well kept. The leaf blower is the only real noise and doesn’t last all day. If they didn’t clear the small paved roadway, it would become slick and muddy with pine needles and leaves. I’m impressed with the care for the grounds as well as the clean facilities and approachable staff!

However the rates have increased. Smaller sites without view, W & S are $25/night. Larger sites are now $40 with W, S and view. You must also have a Washington State pass for $10 for 1 night or $30/year.