Bay View State Park — Attraction in Anacortes

I would give this state park more than one star, but I feel that it would be too kind of gesture to do at this point. My boyfriend is a disabled veteran and is allowed to stay on state parks for free. Due to our homeless situation, we normally stay in or around Bay View State Park because the staff knows us well, we have met some their families, if not, heard or talked about them, we volunteer around the campground, we help clean up the park either way we can; nothing but good jesters because we're homeless at the moment with nowhere to go. We have been more than great campers and we try not to impose. When we need to use the restroom, take showers if we're not campers there, we were giving the permission from the staff and from the former ranger before he retired that we could do such things. We have been staying at this park for about 3 years now and we have just literally been banned from this very state park because of a NEW ranger named Jim Spaulding. This morning we needed to use the restroom and we arrived onto the state park 2 hours earlier before park hours and instead of going back to the side of the road, we waited in the park until it opened. Once the park was open, we drove around the park to look for open campsites. Once we self-served a campsite, we were about to finally get some sleep without road noise. About 20 mins later, Jim Spaulding is coming to harass us or as he says "just doing my job". He said that he gotten word from the staff that we slept in the park when we weren't suppose too. Which is a lie. The female ranger saw us leave and we don't need to lie about such things. We said no we didn't. Then he said well park hours are from 8 to dusk. Then we said okay, we will never come back in here before 8 A.M, but we would like to know who gave you that information. By asking that simple question, "who told you we slept here overnight?" Jim Spaulding automatically feared for his life. He said that we were threating him. He further asked for our driver licenses (which is a separate mess and alot of money to fix) he then threatened to impound our car. Now he originally came to our campsite to tell us that we shouldn't be in the park before 8, which we said we wouldn't do anymore. Since then he threatened my sense of security by telling me he can have me arrested because of my warrant that would be squashed as soon as a see a judges face, he threatened to take away my home from me because we live in a car with a small dog, he even banned us from the park. We are no longer allowed to go to this park because of the false slander and because we entered the park at 6 instead of 8 A.M. Since the time we left Bay View, we had to return a bunch of items back to stores just to afford gas to make it to somewhere (most likely the side of the road). En route, our transmission decided it was going to die on us. So here we are with no money, no family to help us, no friends, no way out of this situation until the 1st of September. I honestly don't know what to do until then......just hope the cops won't make our lives even more harder!

If you made it to the bottom of this, thanks for reading. There are other state parks that are way more beautiful in spirit and physically. My personal favorite is Fort Worden State Park. Tons of military batteries to explore, trails and activities, they even have a little community thier, you should check them out next...

This review is about the cabins.

Stayed in cabin 3. You can make a reservation far in advance - i think 9 months. Our first time and pleasantly surprised. We wanted a deluxe cabin but those get reserved quickly. Our standard cabin was c3. 1 firm queen sized mattress bed and 2 twin beds in bunkbed formation. Bring your own bedding and pillows.

In the cabin. There is a small table, 2 chairs and a bench. A small microwave and small fridge/freezer, bedside table with lamp. There is a heater. There are 2 accessible outlets. 1 near the fridge that makes the lighting go wonky if you plug anything into it. 1 outlet under the table. The windows have screens and blinds and curtains.

Outside there is a porch swing for 2 facing away from the view. There is a picnic table, a BBQ and fire pit with standard half grill. You can buy firewood from ranger or camp host for $7 during our visit.

You have 1 designated parking spot. There is a shared bathroom a short walk away with toilet paper and paper towels. There is a pay shower 50 cents for 3 minutes taking quarters only. I thought the bathrooms were kept up very well considering the rainy weather and the number of people using the facilities during our busy weekend.

Our site faced the water. You have a view of the bay through the trees and can see the refinery. There is a side view of sunset but you have to go to the beach to see it better.

It was rainy and cold during our memorial day weekend stay. We weren't super prepared because this was our first time to this site. We were still able to enjoy time around the fire with protective trees despite the rain. Our neighbors were quite noisy but it didn't bother us. The campsite is actually next to the road and you can hear the road traffic.

The welcoming ranger was very nice. The ranger station and the camp host were not always readily available but that also didn't affect how we felt about our stay.

We highly...

Wow, where do I begin....

My wife and I were told of this beautiful place by some friends around 12 years ago. Back then we had a tent only so we camped here and it instantly became our favourite campground. Service is great. The care-takers have always been polite, friendly and helpful.

There is not tons to do in the park, especially in the months we camped (low and shoulder season). We played games in the green space, rode the bikes around the campground and the beach and later on, when the kids got bigger, along the trail that goes all the way to the main road.

A few years later, the campground introduced their cabins and that worked for us for a while until we decided to get an old, used RV.

RV'ING here was great! The holidays and summer are really busy though so you need to book a campground well in advance. The beach and park itself are user friendly year-round. Since it is a state park now one has to pay the $10.00 daily-use fee or buy the year-round Discover pass. Since we are not from the area and rarely get to make it to the park now, we just spring the $10.00 and make a day out of the trip.

The views are fantastic! The water seems clean and very cold but rhat is just me. My kids have gone swimming in it and I have seen whole families having fun in the water. The beach is rocky though so make sure you bring waterproof footwear to prevent injuries.

The blackberries in the summer are HUGE and sooooo sweet. Picked some a few summers ago. Yummmm.

Definitely...