Best Glamping near Ishpeming, MI

We stayed at Van Riper State Park three times during June and July. The park is always clean and well-maintained. The bathrooms and showers and generally always nicely maintained as well, and there are plenty of both. The bathrooms do tend to run out of soap and toilet paper at busy times. Dogs are not allowed on the beach but also cannot be left unattended in your site. The rules are heavily enforced in this park. Park staff will ask you to move vehicles if you have more than two, and you will be asked to turn music completely off upon quiet hours. This is not the place to go if you want to party.

Sites 15 and 17, as well as several other sites along that side of that loop, now have a wooden fence at the back of them, so they are not as large as they appear in the photos online.

We have stayed in sites 14, 90 and 93. We travel with a 34’ trailer.

Site 14 is narrow but manageable. It is well-shaded by large pine trees on the site. Site is entirely dirt. There are trees to hang hammocks or clotheslines in.

Site 90 is on a corner by the propane tanks. It is a large site. It does have some roots and low spots. It is partial grass. It has nice shade and is adjacent to the bathrooms. There are trees to hang hammocks or clotheslines.

Site 93 is a large site that backs up to a small grass/tree buffer. It is across the road from the bathrooms. It has nice shade. There is a place to hang a clothesline but not hammocks.

Pros: Clean, well-maintained park

Quiet

Lots of playground equipment

Bike/scooter pump track

Excellent beach area

Lots of green space

Hiking trails

Wood and ice available for purchase at the entrance

Laundry is available; one washer and two dryers

Very kid and pet friendly

Cons: Park website has out of date information, specifically that there is no longer a store on the beach, nor are there kayaks/SUPs to rent

The Water Warrior Island is no longer in the lake

There are very few sites with buffers between

It is sort of far to the beach and laundry from the modern campsites

No non-reservable sites available

Overall, this is a good option for coming near Marquette, especially if you have a trailer, a family, or are looking to post up for a bit.

Pros: The campsite has a lot of amenities that are easily accessible. Each site has a table, a fire pit, potable water nearby and most have electric hookup. The beach area for swimming in Lake Independence is nice with a pavilion, volleyball, and ping pong nearby. You can launch your boat or fish from the dock. The views are beautiful.

Cons: It's a crowded location that doesn't offer a lot of privacy. At 2am we were woken up by a boat coming back in from the water blasting it's music while the whole crew was loud and obnoxious.

This is a well run,clean campground in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was easy to access and right off the main road, no four wheel drive necessary.

The campsites are large and there are a few sites near the lake (We recommend 113).There is a great playground, the summer of 2018 it hosted an inflatable water park which was a riot!

The water system is getting redone which will remove the orange color in the showers (which would otherwise be very nice). The water was not drinkable due to high arsenic but a large container of potable water was available. That is the only thing keeping this campground from being a 5.

The lake was a great temperature and very swimmable. Quiet hours are all the time so it was very peaceful and enjoyable. Ask the rangers for a listing of moose sightings outside of the campground.

Would definitely recommend for visitors in the U.P.

Vibe: Mix of retirees and families. 

Cleanliness: Above average. 

Facilities: Average. 

General spots: Varies from right up next to each other to odd shaped spaces that have extra room and trees. 

Our site: 40. One of the odd shaped spaces that had extra buffer room and big trees for shade. It was at an intersection at the camp and traffic was pretty steady during the day. 

Noise: Mostly quiet. Kids played well after dark in a parking lot across from us, but quiet hours didn’t start until 11 and they were never a problem. 

Cell signal(Verizon): Full bars. I streamed a movie (Anatomy of a Murder...see below). 

Other: You can swim at Independence Lake right at the camp. If you want to swim in Lake Superior, Squaw Beach is about 10 minutes away. Ate the Lumberjack Tavern and found out about“Anatomy of a Murder” and that it took place at the tavern. Turns out the couple involved had a trailer at the campground.

City run campground on lake superior. Beautiful views, sandy shore. Most sites have water and electricity, some have sewer hookup. Some walk in sites on the shoreline. We camped on site 5. Pros:

1. Huge, wide open site, no trees.
2. lakefront site, great view.
3. great spot to base camp, near Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Grand Island National Recreation Area, and the Hiawatha National Forest.
   Cons:
4. water and electric are far apart,meaning I had to run 55' of electric cord and 75' of water hose in opposite directions to hook up.
5. no buffer for strong winds off lake superior
6. highway is very close to the campground, noise is constant
7. some sites are low and flood after rains

This is a busy campground right on Munising Bay on Lake Superior. Reservations for the busy season need to be made months in advance, and even reserving 6 months before our arrival date, we got the last spot. We have a 22 foot travel trailer, so we can fit onto most any site, but this campground draws some huge rigs pulled by tractor trailers.

The people in the office are great. The beach on the bay is spectacular. Overall nice campground at a very good price.

But this is an older campground, and the electrical system can't handle the power draw from the big rigs. People at the end of the power line - beware! Bring your surge protector to protect your electrical system.

We were fine until day 3 where the temps hit 88 degrees, and the big rigs were running their double air conditioners, while we were running just our fridge, water heater and a fan. Draws about 6 amps. We didn't have enough power coming to our site even for that, and the surge protector shut everything down. Thank goodness it did it's job and protected the electrical system on the trailer. At one point the power coming into the site was only 98 instead of 120ish.

So while the big boys further up the line were running 2 air conditioners, we weren't getting enough power to run a water heater, fridge and a fan. We had to put our water heater and fridge onto propane and do without even a fan in 88 degree heat. Thank goodness our fridge and water heater can run on propane, and the lights work on DC, but the fan runs on 110, so it didn't work. 

The people in the office were apologetic, and they said we should have power when it cools down and there aren't so many air conditioners running. That was small comfort when we were paying for a 50 amp site for our 30 amp trailer, and we couldn't even run a fan. At least the surge protector kept us from damaging the trailer electrical system - we hope!

Paddlers Village was a nice, small, clean campground right on Lake Superior. We stayed in a Yurt, and had a good experience. The campground offers nice showers, a sink to wash dishes, trash cans.. all the amenities. The yurts are just steps from lake superior, and they have a nice rock beach (we filtered the water there and it was awesome) and a pier going out into the water. We had great sunrises. Each yurt is equipped with bunk beds and a futon (sleeps 5), mini fridge, power... definitely glamping :) Just bring your own sleeping bag, etc.

You can also rent kayaks from there to go out into lake superior. We were not able to do that because it stormed, but they say you can get to Pictured Rocks - that would be VERY FAR.

One thing to note - there was a HUGE thunderstorm while we were there, and we stayed totally dry and secure in the yurt. It was an ideal night to be there with that happening.

The only negative of the place is really just the tight proximity to other campers. there is not a ton of room, so we could hear people talking outside into the night.

On the shores of Independence Lake, just south of Lake Superior, sits this gorgeous, sparkling clean county park with a well-managed campground. Wasn’t expecting much, so was blown away by the facilities for the low price. Lots of site options: non-electric, with electric only, with full hookups, walk-in or boat-in sites on the water, as well as a couple cabins. Sites are nicely spaced apart, but not much privacy between them. We chose the site right by the boat launch, which definitely has the most privacy when it’s not boating season. Lots of deciduous trees, making the fall truly glorious! 

The campground was about 10% full upon arrival, and everybody left before we did, so we had the place to ourselves. Did we mention how much we love fall camping?!? Bathrooms and showers are clean and well maintained and spread out throughout the campground. 

Tons of hiking, mountain biking, and water sports of all kinds around. Nice boat launch facility, as well as special place to launch canoes/kayaks. A large picnic pavilion with stone fireplace sits right at the waterfront. This is a reservation only type of place (with a $3 nominal fee), but the website allows you to book for the same day, and there is decent cell service at the campground. Win win! 

Stock up in Marquette before heading out here as there is only a small gas station convenience store across the road from the campground, as well as a small café and laundromat.