Best Glamping near Clare, MI

If you have any watercraft, this is a good weekender spot. The hike trails are easily traversed and if you ask the camp ranger at reception, you can also rent single or tandem kayaks for *quite a reasonable price in varying time blocks if you don't have any watercraft of your own - you just tell them what time that you want to start and they will bring the kayak to the boat launch for you, which is great. Trash dumpsters and firewood are available at the campground entrance (if wood for some reason is unavailable, there's a BP gas station nearby that also sells it for $1 cheaper a bundle). The designated swimming area for the site is not the best unless you have small children, but if you like towed tubing, there's plenty of that happening mid-lake, outside of the other pontoons and boats. Also, despite the features listed here, there are no shower facilities available at this site, so bring bath wipes if you want to stay fresh! The water pump was also inoperable during my stay, but came prepared with plenty of bottled water anyway. The campfire pits also do not have grates for grilling/cooking any hot food, but if you have any cast iron cookware, you can get around this by placing your fire pit logs as evenly as possible so you can set your cookware direct on the flame (or just bring a mini grill if you prefer). Also close enough to Grand Haven so you can spend a few hours there as part of a mini get-away and still get to your site within about an hour or so.

This site turned out to be a diamond in the rough. Due to our lack of planning and seeking reservations, Newaygo State Park was one of the few campsites with short notice availability. As we entered we were greeted by spacious plots with enough treeline between them to cover up even the loudest of snorers. We took the next few minutes mapping out our perfect hammock setup. With so many options, we settled on our spots and built up the rest of camp. Nestled in and ready to explore, we walked to the edge of our site to the head of the beach trail to check out what we had gotten ourselves into. Less than a mile hike later and we made it to the 'beach front'. It wasn't much. The shallow buoyed off swim area was sandy, yet immediately upon passing the buoys we were met by very thick seaweed. Nonetheless, the view was breathtaking, there are plenty of lookout points over the lake to spend quiet time posted up in a hammock reading or whatever else you do in a hammock. Nighttime came and we were around the fire. We read that quiet hours start at 10:00 so being conscious of the expectations we kept our conversation at a low level and had light music playing from a phone. Around 11:10 a park ranger stopped by asking us to turn off the music, no big. But it seemed to us that no music after quiet hours should also be a part of the rules. All in all, we had an amazing weekend and we're all looking forward to our next weekend spent here. Thanks, Newaygo State Park!

We stayed for a quick overnight and wish we could have stayed longer. If we stayed again - we’d pick site 101. Little more privacy than the rest. We stayed at 137 which backed up to the woods which was lovely. This is a very bustling and full campground with lots of groups and families. Lot’s of kids on bikes. We were surprised to see a group with a full bar right out front on their site. We’re used to Texas parks where that would NOT fly😆 But everyone respected the quiet hours so we had no noise issues at night. Easy access to the water from everywhere thanks to groomed paths. Nice long but narrow sandy beach great for the kids to swim. Busy but very fun place to camp!