Bay City State Park

I have been going to Bay City State Park since I was very young. This place is great, peaceful and so many trails to walk or bike on 🚴‍♂️. This place also has a nice beach that has improved a lot of the years/decades. I really like all of the activities that are available here at this park.

Park has an entrance fee of 11 dollars for out of state and 20 annual for locals. It’s worth getting the pass for recreation in this case. Park includes a decent beach area however it was muddy closer to shore. The park includes trails which was beautiful and observation decks. I recommend visiting as it was about 85 degrees and was perfect place to spend a day in summer.

Very nice park. Lots of things to do. The beach has nice soft sand, water park for the kids. Trail for walking, bike riding. Picnic table with bbq grills. I saw two large pavilions that look like you could have family party or reunion at. I think the park also connects to local bike paths. I did get a free wood duck house plans, so I can build one from their visitor center. You will need a state park pass it gets in.

Super cool place just across the street from the State Park Campground. Easy bike ride to everything. Awesome modern visitor center with a lot of interactive displays for kids and adults. Nice splash pad and modern playground. One of the few, large, sandy beaches, on Lake Huron.

Lovely state park with trails and beach access. The nature center is great for kids--animals, microscopes, and exhibits. You can call ahead to reserve an off-road wheelchair that can go on trails and sand!

Beautiful beech that allows pets on 6' leashes. It has a cute nature themed playground as well as a splash pad for kids. Well maintained trails and clean restrooms.

The fall colors were breathtaking! Was the much needed break we needed. Staff was helpful when providing directions. The observations towers were easy to find and safe to climb.

Haven't been since the updates. Quieter areas are either all the way to the right or back by visitor center(which has ac & nice bathrooms). E charging stations by visitor center. Pavilions, fire rings, grills thru out whole park. All staff was friendly & personable.

I was surprised to find the park peopled, but by no means packed on what one would expect to be a prime day for it. However, if my presupposition was that Michigan was one of the worst-governed states in the country, this park did nothing to change my mind. The beach is quite muddy, with a privately owned string of beach on one side, and a power plant looming the other way. The insect swarms were considerable, only partially deterred by the bug repellent I thankfully had on me. But hey, you say, it's a swamp, what did you expect? Fair enough, nature isn't always vacation-friendly. What's less forgivable is the closed visitor center, still under construction, which leads the visitor to older picnic facilities with dirty bathrooms and a water fountain/unintentional eyewash station (seriously that was some excessive water pressure). The park brags that COVID relief funds are being used to complete repairs and upgrades, but when are these actually supposed to be done? Moving away from the beach, I thought the marsh boardwalk might save things, only to find that viewing platforms in the marsh were falling apart and closed, and unlike with the visitor center there was no sign that anyone was working on the problem. A viewing tower in the forest offered bafflingly few views thanks to the surrounding trees, only a nice breeze and some extra surface area for people to carve their initials . Among the wildlife that joined me, what I think was a small snapping turtle preferred to be left alone, and a raccoon became aware of my presence and ran back towards the water, presumably to be devoured immediately by mosquitos. There were some informational signs along the way, but the atrocious spelling and grammar in them doesn't inspire much confidence (pretty sure that snake "secretes" a musky odor, not "secrets", and venom and poison are different things). I found the eastern shore beaches to be nicer, and even the island off in the distance might office some pleasures if you have a way of getting there. But that wasn't part of this park, which I was insulted that they charged me money to come in (after some card reading error that I'm pretty confident was their fault). I like nature and I'm not saying I want the wetlands torn down for a shopping center, but from a recreational perspective, I can't recall ever seeing a more ineptly managed park.

Bay City State Recreation Area feels like the back half is one giant parking lot, the front half is standard park along Lake Huron shoreline, and then the one side is then joined up with the Tobico lagoon and general Tobico Marsh Area. The two are connected by an absolutely lovely nature trail and the overall loop around both these park areas is a whopping 6 miles though, so it's definitely a HIKE, but it's so enjoyable and basically all on one flat surface, so it's really easy to do! We start at the giant Bay City State Rec Area parking lot and went towards Tobico. It was a great time. There was a little viewing tower of the lagoon once you got a bit into Tobico Marsh, which was a great vantage point. I would definitely come back and do this one again! Very dog-friendly and all skill levels friendly!

Visited here during a hot summer day in early July 2023. There were a lot of beach goers and for the life of me I cannot figure out why. The water was green in places, and there were no less than 8 huge dead rotting fish on about 100 yards of beach that I walked along. With a massive factory in the distance, the horrible beach, and a seagull carcass left alone by the employees on a golf cart, it was just unpleasant. Please, please do yourself a favor and do not visit a bay for your Great Lakes beach visit. Notes: There was a spray park (which I can't speak about) and boardwalk through some wetlands (which would be lovely on an autumn day). I didn't get to the east end of the park and I've got no input on the campground.

Situated on the shores of the Saginaw Bay, is home to one of the largest remaining freshwater, coastal wetlands on the Great Lakes, the Tobico Marsh. The park has long been known for its outstanding variety of bird life and as a haven for wetland wildlife and plants. Pros: ------- Good Place for Family picnic Clean restrooms Ample Parking Note:You need State park passport otherwise you need to pay.

If you want a view of the lake, the walk to the beach from the parking lot is easy, but both the view and the beach are just so so. We visited on a cool, windy spring day and were very glad we had hoodies on. Overall it looked like the park was a little worn, but there was plenty of parking, restrooms, a picnic pavilion and campsites that were completely serviceable.

Its ok. they have all the facility. convenient and the park has variety of programs. children's play area in nice, water splash park is OK. campground, plenty of parking. But the Beach the primary reason we went here. it was bad, lot of Bugs, in the sand, bushes and the water... access to the water is bad, with moldy unclear water. I would go some where else next time. :)

We went in Labor Day weekend, fished and played at the splash pa. Everyone enjoyed themselves!

We were traveling through the area in January and wanted to "look" at the lake. Of course, it was frozen solid but at least I can add it to my list of great lakes I have visited. It was fun to get to see the locals going out to their ice shacks which seemed like they were a long ways out on the lake. The park looked like it would be a fantastic place during the summer with lots of amenities for picnics, beach time and enjoying the natural area.

We had a fun day visiting this park. The trails are mostly wooden bridges that wind through the marshes & wetlands. So it's a unique opportunity to see nature in this setting. There is a nice splash park for the wee ones. The beach is a bit of a walk from the parking lot, but not bad. We really enjoyed the nature center. Lots of information about animal & plant life in the area.

Gives the greats lakes a bad name. This beach felt and smelt like liquid poo. If you hit the shoreline in the wrong spot it's exceptionally mucky, you might lose your flip-flops. Copious amounts of sharp shells. Water was murky, beach was stinky and riddled with dead animals. Marshes between the parking lot and beach were odorous. If you would like to test your immune system, make this your family vacation spot. Pretty sure there was some sort of pollution run off going on.

I love state park.its gotten so much better over the years at the beginning of last year the water and shore line were beautiful but it kinda went away as the summer went on and the part in between the actual beach and dock had a ton of dead fish but besides that everything is wonderful..my daughter loves the park, the beach, the dock, the huge tree log on the beach, and especially the water park! It's an awesome place and I love How they are continually working at making it better...we go practically everyday in the summer!

Stayed at the Bay City State Park campground for a weekend. I was quite impressed! In the past 5 years I've noticed State Parks have gotten a lot nicer (possibly due to the recreation passports). This campground was well kept! The bathrooms were clean, the showers were clean (with a lot of hot water). The campsites were also large compared to other campgrounds. Even the fire pits were nice (cement with metal interior). The campground is large but thankfully there are two bathrooms. So even if you are all the way in the back you really don't have to walk too far to get a bathroom. The sites were clean too. Often when you go to public campgrounds there is still garbage left over from precious campers. Didn't see one piece of litter! They also provided family movies Friday and Saturday at a campsite. Projected on a white sheet. Pretty neat idea! My only complaint is the size of the roads through the camp. The roads are very narrow and with both cars and people sharing the road it's difficult to drive through especially if there are a lot of people walking around. One minor complaint-the site numbers are on the side of the road. It would be easier if they were on posts. Some of the numbers on the ground were faded. I'll be back to camp here that's for sure.

This is a review of the beach area. For a state park style beach, this was a nice little find. We went here to hang out at the beach for the day on our weekend away. We played games in the surf and sat in the shade of a tent we brought. The sand was unbelievably hot, so bring some form of shade on sunny days. Then you can stay comfortable between dips in the lake. It was a bit busy, but not as busy as the afternoon. We went in the morning and left around 12:30 pm - and the people came like the plague of locust. My recommendation is to go in the morning and stay until lunch. Otherwise, it was a fun morning.

I'm rating this off the beach and nothing else. First off, it cost us $9 to get into the park. The walk to the beach was pleasant enough, but it's a bit of a walk from the lot. Once to the beach, I can't explain how disappointing that it was. They allow dogs elsewhere at this park, but not on the beach, for whatever reason that may be. The beach was covered in debris from high tide (sticks, shells, dead fish, etc) in the afternoon. Not only was it uncomfortable to walk on bare foot, it was dirty from people just leaving garbage (including a used tampon). This was my second time to this beach, was giving it the benefit of the doubt, and it will be my last.

The beach is wonderful! We took our kids (ages 4 and 6) to the beach this past summer along with several of our friends and their children. We were so impressed how clean the beach was. We enjoyed playing at the playscape and eating under the pavilion. Such a nice family outing in our hometown.

Nice little recreation area to stumble upon. A little bit of a walk from the lot to the beach, but well worth it for a quiet beach. Plenty of trails to walk/bike/ jog on. The issue is the water quality: You walk in two feet and cannot see the bottom because of pollution from the nearby Saginaw River. This beach is supposedly the worst after rain storms due to agricultural runoff traveling down the river. I normally don't worry about not seeing the bottom, but parts of the beach have logs sticking up out of the water so you really do not know what lies beneath the brown water.

Great state park. Love the splash pad.....wish they had a pier like in Tawas! Hope they continue to clean up the beach!