Best Glamping near Grand Ledge, MI

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.

This is a nice place to camp if you dont mind the bigger parks. There is electrical on each site and is mostly a place for campers and RVs. There are fire pits and picnic tables at each site. It is usually easy to get multiple sites next to each other with reservations.

There is a decent sandy beach here with a playground and volleyball net. Also in the park are some small dirt trails for hiking and biking. There are enough loops here to go for walks as well.

Most of the sites are in the sun, but there are a few sites with more shade and tree cover.

We had a great time camping at Hidden Ridge. Amenities were great, everything well kept and clean. This park is very big. Seems to have a lot of seasonal campers there but still spots for the vacationers too. The pool was nice, and the playground very fun for kids. Sunday morning they have Cinnamon Roll delivery to your campsite! Only a couple of negatives to report there isn’t much close the the campground at all. Like the closest gas station is 15 miles. Not really any fast food restaurants either. Obviously not a deal breaker, but just something to be prepared for. And there is a snack bar at the campground, but for other things you’ll have to go further out. Second, I found it odd the there isn’t trash pickup at the site. And the only trash bin we could find was at the entrance of the grounds (which was quite a distance from 241 our site). Just seems places this big and at this price range offer trash pick up at the site. Again, not a deal breaker but just a nuisance I guess. Would definitely recommend and would return to stay if in the area.