Best Glamping near Jerome, 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.

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!

The hosts are terrific: the campsites and fire pits are immediately cleaned, the hosts checked us in remotely (saved us a trip to the office), provided tips for getting quality firewood, cleaned the bathrooms regularly even during a busy holiday weekend.

The campsites are a bit small, but fortunately the other campers were friendly and helpful. Some of the non-electric sites were used by RVs running generators all day and night, so that was a bummer for those of us hoping non-electric would mean more quiet.

The bathrooms were scrupulously clean and always available without a line.

Three minor complaints: vault toilets instead of bathrooms in the non-electric area, only one gray water dump on the entire south side of the lake, the park lacks much in the way of hiking (but does have boating, fishing, etc.)