Photo Gallery Friday: Bay City State Park (Bay City State Recreation Area)
Photo Gallery Friday is a regular feature on Travel the Mitten that will help showcase photos from places where a few pictures just aren’t enough to show off everything.
We had the chance to visit Bay City State Park (formerly known as Bay City State Recreation Area) in June after a rainy morning canceled our kayaking plans. We were impressed with all this park has to offer: a swimming beach, splash pad, campground, miles of nature trails, an archery area, a fishing platform, and an interpretive visitors center. Bay City State Park is a birdwatchers paradise in all seasons, as its marshes create a perfect habitat for herons, kingfishers, sandpipers, terns, egrets, plovers, and more.
The park’s Saginaw Bay Visitor Center was remodeled in 1995 and includes a gift shop, 100-seat auditorium, and an exhibit hall. Many of the exhibits are educational and they include information on wetland animals, animal tracks, birdwatching, where runoff water goes, invasive species, and more. Trails loop throughout the entire park and include informational signs about the species that call the marshes here home, how to identify them by sound, and why this habitat is so important. Bay City State Park’s Tobico Marsh is one of the largest remaining freshwater coastal wetlands on the Great Lakes. Three trails here combine to cover more than seven miles, and the campground offers close to 200 sites. Many of the park’s attractions, including the beach, visitor center, and portions of the trails are handicap accessible.
Enjoy this look at some of our favorite pictures from our visit. We look forward to returning soon in better weather conditions, and hope you consider adding this to your list of state parks to visit as Michigan’s state park system turns 100 years old in 2019! You can follow the park on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BayCityStatePark) and make camping reservations at https://www.midnrreservations.com/home.
