Bluebell Beach: a county lake beach with the area's first splash pad

There’s a sand beach on Mott Lake, northeast of Flint, where the kids can run straight from the water into a fountain. Bluebell Beach is a Genesee County park on North Bray Road, and the fountain part is the area’s first splash pad — a zero-depth spray ground where water shoots up in timed bursts from the pavement and from a tangle of playful structures, so toddlers too small for the lake have something to shriek about too.

The lake itself is the centerpiece. Mott Lake is a wide stretch of the Flint River, and Bluebell gives you a stretch of real sand to spread a towel on, free to get in, open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. There are no lifeguards, so it’s a watch-your-own-kids kind of place, the way most small public beaches are. Pavilions handle the cookouts and birthday parties, and fourteen bright shade kites — a gift from the Ruth Mott Foundation — throw color and a little relief from the sun across the sand.

The other reason to come has nothing to do with swimming. Bluebell sits right on the Flint River Trail, the paved path that follows the river, so you can park here and roll out on a bike for miles along the water. That makes the place a kind of hinge: lake on one side, trail on the other, splash pad in the middle for the small fry. Pack a cooler and you’ve got a full summer afternoon out of one little county beach most of mid-Michigan drives right past.