Best Glamping near Clayton, MI

This is a typical fairground campground with open grassy areas for campsites surrounded by barns and tracks. The fairgrounds is located just off I-94 which makes for easy entrance and exit to the campground, but, means there is lots of road noise. Close by are plenty of stores, restaurants, gas stations, etc. In fact, there is a gap in the fence that runs around the fairgrounds allowing you to walk to a Walmart, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and more. 

We arrived without a reservation and the women in the office was very helpful providing a map with all available sites during our stay and letting us choose which one we wanted. One of the first things you notice is that a number of people are here long-term so we went to the back area hoping it would be quieter and less crowded. A number of the campsites are “buddy” sites meaning your patio opens to your neighbors so be careful which one you pick. This is pretty undesirable when the neighbor is a total stranger so we chose a site where we didn’t have anyone next to us. 

They offer 50 amp full hook-up sites, 50 amp/water, and 30 amp/water sites with pull-thru and back-in options. There is a dump station located in the middle of the park which is easy to get to. The roads are wide and a lack of trees makes this campground accessible for any size RV. The sites are level but some lack grassy making the patio pretty dusty or muddy. Unfortunately, where we were was pretty muddy just after a light rain. This campground works best for RV’s and not tents. For tenters there is a designated section that is set in a corner of the park with large trees for shade but not much privacy between you and others. A water spigot is in the tent area and there was one picnic table. The camp office sells firewood but we only saw two fire pits in the whole park. Be aware that noise from the interstate and nearby train tracks may make for a restless night. Bathrooms are centrally located in the campground and were old and tired but relatively clean. On-site laundry is available.

Apparently, management is having some issues with campers not obeying some of the rules. One of the sad things about this campground is that campers have to be reminded to clean up after their dogs. Apparently, it is such an issue that we got a letter stating that if you don’t pick up your dogs poop you would be asked to leave. How sad is that? There is free WiFi which worked pretty well. Upon checking in, we had to sign a piece of paper stating that we would not download copyrighted material or stream movies or we would be asked to leave. 

My favorite aspect of this campground is that they had a community garden that you were welcome to pick from. We got tomatoes, Swiss chard, peppers, broccoli, and more. Overall, this campground was fine for the few nights we were here and close to the attractions we wanted to visit. We never felt unsafe even though it was close to major cities. We chose this campground because we wanted to go to Ann Arbor and Dearborn and it was a very convenient location.

Pros:

·        Good location if you want to visit Ann Arbor and Dearborn

·        Close to interstate for easy access

·        Long, level sites that will fit any RV

·        Community garden you can pick from vegetables

·        Stores and restaurants are nearby (some within walking distance)

Cons:

·        Lots of road noise from I-94

·        No trees for shade or privacy

·        Would not recommend for tent camping

·        Many campers are long-term

·        “Buddy” campsites with patios facing each other

We've camped at Maumee Bay State Park twice and enjoyed it both times.  The campground is part of a larger resort complex that includes a hotel, marina, a nice beach on Lake Erie, a second beach on an inland lake, golf course, mowed hiking trails and - our favorite - about 5 miles of beautiful, paved bike paths.  It's all very clean and well maintained.  The whole place has a welcoming, friendly vibe.

We camped on site 47, electric only.  Very level and spacious paved spot with its own shade tree.  Nearby shower house accessible by well-lit paved path.  Our only problem was a bit of water puddling near the camper/fire pit but it went away after the first night.  

The campground is spread out so everyone brings bicycles and also saw a few golf carts.  Very nice for family bicycling!  Saw lots of wildlife on our rides.

The surrounding area is kind of industrial.  We toured it the first year we went (very interesting!) but stayed close to camp this year.

We got lucky with our site right on the water and the temperature was nice and cool so we did not have to deal with any bugs. We hiked right in and setup camp. This place only allows camping for one night as it's considered a pass-through campground. There is a decently clean outhouse(it appears to be cleaned daily by DNR staff), and each site has its own fire pit. The views are wonderful and the surrounding sites appeared to be enjoying themselves as well. Our site, B6, was equipped with a table, bench, and a fire pit. From what I could tell no other sites had a bench; fire pit and table only. We found another place to park which allowed us to cut down on our hike time because I was not about that 4 miles+ life. Our hike was maybe 15, 20 minutes tops. If staying on the water is not your jam, there were places at a higher elevation to try. There is also a fresh water pump. No electricity. You must hunt for the wood you want to burn in the pit. No ground fires. A great time!

Campground Review:

Bishop Lake is a great campground located in the middle of the Brighton Rec Area. The upper and lower campgrounds are both modern, with every site including electric. There are two rustic campgrounds as well down the road. When we went to go get a campsite (you can reserve online for an $8 fee) they told us that the upper campground would be the better choice, due to the heavy rain that had come through earlier. It was the perfect choice! Our campsite was spacious, with a few pine trees for shade. If you have a hammock, the outer edge of campsites would be perfect. Only downside to our campsite was the distance between the picnic table and the fire pit. The bathrooms and showers are in the lower campground, but it’s a 5 minute walk or 30sec drive to them. They were clean, stocked with toilet paper and the showers were warm. There’s a ton of hiking trails, a boat launch and boat rental, as well as the beach and inflatable water park. Overall a great little nature spot in the middle of the Brighton area.

Gear Review: As a ranger for The Dyrt, I sometimes get sent awesome gear that I could use and try for my upcoming trip. This time I got to try the equinox hoodie from Eclipse Sun Products (https://eclipseglove.com/collections/all-eclipse-sun-products/products/equinox-hoodie-beach-cover-up). This hoodie is super super lightweight, and the open sides allow for a nice breeze on hot days. Of course, their main feature is the 50+ UPF fabric used in not just the hoodie, but all of Eclipses sun products. I am a melanoma survivor, so having something lightweight, but protective, is so great. It’s one size fits all, and while it fits me great at 5’5, I have also heard from other taller people that it fits them great as well. It does the job well, and while I live in Michigan and it only got to about 75°, I could feel it keeping the sun off my skin. Totally recommend the equinox hoodie!!

We stayed the weekend at greenlake rustic, the access road into the Campground is a nice 1/2 ish mile in.  We were on sites 5 and 3. Both sites seemed larger then most suburban house lots. Site 5 had a decent view of the lake, Site 3 had odd fire pit placement under 2 trees. Even though the sites were large they didn't have much for privacy in between sites.

Overall, it was a quiet stay. The freeway is on the other side of the lake, but it didn't bother us. At night it was like white noise.

The Campground has a small boat dock, no swimming area. We checked out half moon lake, wasn't really impressed, was told sugarloaf but its only for sugarloaf campers.  We were then directed to Portage lake beach, which was a larger beach but it was really silty.

Green lakes vault toilets had nice motion sensor lights in them. The hand pump took a long time to get going.

We went on both east and west sides of the waterloo-pickney trail, located off the Campground access road. I believe it was the west trail after Cassidy road we experienced some steep inclines.

We also were able to see some awesome stars at night

FYI sugarloaf and portage both have firewood for sale $6.

Pokagon was one of the first Indiana state parks, so there's some history here! One of my favorite memories is the toboggan run, which FYI, is seasonal. It's a ton of fun for the whole family. Also, in the winter, there's sledding, ice fishing and cross country skiing. There's a few trails and swimming and boating in the lake in the summer. The campground is standard and has a bathhouse and fire pits at each site (both electric and non-electric). There's a nice Inn as well, if you need a non campgroud place to stay in the winter. It's a great easy trip, even from Chicago. So, come winter or summer!