Overview

Murray Lake is in the Brighton State Rec Area, which sits about a half hour outside of Ann Arbor and is a short trip off either US 23 or 96 depending on your route. The park includes camping as well as a day use area. Most regular campers develop a default or “fall-back” campground close to where they live. Campgrounds at this park have tended to be that for me, and now, my family. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve stayed at the various rustic sites available. My wife and I camped here both before and after we were married. We’ve done multi-family trips with the kids’ friends. I even had my “bachelor party” here (which probably says a lot about me right there:)). 

The park itself is around 5000 acres with multiple lakes and three separate campgrounds. The modern site at Bishop lake has around 150 sites. The Appleton campground is rustic and directly across from the beach/day-use area at Bishop Lake, but more on that at a different time. This stay we spent at the Murray Lake campground that is on the other end of the park. It has a couple dozen sites, is definitely a bit more secluded, and generally only available on weekends.

Our Most Recent Stay at Murray Lake

Since this site is only available on the weekends, we wanted to make sure to get the most out of our time at the park and arrived early on Friday. Usually I like to get camp set up as soon as possible so that it’s taken care of, kinda my backpacker mentality, but since we arrived first thing in the morning we decided to do it a little differently. Our first stop was the beach at Bishop Lake. The boys are always in a hurry to get in any water (any time, any where, any temperature) so this was just fine with them. It’s not a huge beach, but it’s a day use area, so it’s also far from private.

It was a little chilly at first this particular morning, so to start off we had pretty much free reign of the water. As expected, that changed quickly.  Just a warning to rustic campers, if you’re there on a weekend afternoon, expect crowds. This is particularly true in recent years since there’s been one of the floating water obstacle courses that seem to be popping up more and more. I’ll keep my feelings on this development for its own article. Either way, the boys had fun splashing around and continuing their efforts to work on their swimming proficiency.

After a couple hours and a quick lunch in the shade it was time to register and head over to set up camp. It’s about a ten minute drive on dirt roads from the Bishop Lake/Camp Office area to Murray Lake. A twenty minute round-trip isn’t huge, but enough where it comes into planning for how many trips you really want to make back and forth. In other words, if you’re buying firewood, you might want to do it at check in.

Our site was toward the back, on the lake end of the campground. I highly recommend picking one of the sites in this area if you can (see Site Info section below). It had been a few years since staying here and honestly the first thing I noticed was just how clean the place was. Not that I expected it to be dirty, but let’s face it, people often aren’t the neatest animals. I believe it’s one of the advantages of this being a weekend only destination. I wasn’t coming in on the heels of someone leaving from the night before. This also meant that getting here early had us as the first campers there despite the place being pretty much booked up. We took advantage of this by scoping the place out. Not too much had changed since my last stay, but it was new to the boys and they love exploring. There are the usual rustic accommodations of a vault toilet and hand pump for water.

The lake itself was different than I remembered, but this is just a matter of staying so many different places that some tend to run together in your mind. It’s an absolutely beautiful lake in my opinion. Like the rest of this campground, it has an extremely “up north” feel. This means that despite being only about 20 miles from U of M, you can easily think you’re in the middle of nowhere… in a very good way. 

On that note, this lake isn’t really designed for what I’ll call “casual access”. There’s a path leading to a few wood boards that then continue into the marshy water. There isn’t a beach of any kind or a fishing pier. (There is a pier at Bishop Lake, more on that later.) If you have waders or a small boat, this is an ideal spot to set in. My kids haven’t quite gotten to that point in their fishing career, so this trip the lake just served as beautiful scenery and a wonderful spot to try to catch a sunset.

With the swimming out of the way we settled in and the evening was spent getting the site ready and with the boys doing laps around the campsite. This is another reason why I like being in the back whenever possible. Less thru-traffic makes me a bit more comfortable with a 4, 8, and 10 year old wandering the “roads”. Hotdogs and s’mores over the fire rounded out the evening, which tends to be a family first day tradition.

Day two started off with fishing. We made the drive back to Bishop lake, where they have a designated fishing pier. Unsurprisingly, this does tend to get crowded on a summer Saturday. Personally I only chose to come back here because it makes it a lot easier corralling and helping the three boys. I promised my oldest that on a future trip we could go out on Murray lake for some quieter fishing time. That said, we did catch some small fish and everyone had a good time, so I still recommend it for an hour or so of less than serious fishing.

Next on the agenda was getting a hike in before the heat of the day. There are several trails in the park but we chose to do the “Lost Loop”, a two mile trail that connects up with the Murray Lake campground area. This is predominantly a mountain bike trail, but as with nearly all such trails, they’re open to foot traffic as well. As always, when hiking a trail like this, be sure to be courteous to those using it for biking. I’ve known hikers that get hung-up on official right of way, which generally goes to the hiker. Personally, I think it’s best to just yield to whoever makes sense to have the right of way in a given situation. If someone is climbing a hill on their bike, it’s silly to expect them to stop for a pedestrian, when it’s extremely easy for me to take a one foot step to the side.

The trail was scenic and well shaded, which worked well as the heat started to build going into mid-afternoon. My 4 year old was able to make the full loop on foot, but it was challenging enough that he “needed” a shoulder ride from the trailhead back to camp. 

I like to save the last evening even on short trips to relax at the campsite. I admittedly try to cram way too much stuff into trips sometimes (ok, often:)). Relaxation is a big part of why we’re out here, though, and I try my best to remember that. I did take some time to follow the boys on their laps around the campground to check out the differences in the sites.

Site Info

I won’t go site by site, however, there are always some things that jump out as being useful information for planning your trip. There are multiple “joined” sites that would be nice for a multifamily type trip: 12/13 and 19/21 are of this type. Also, I want to make a special note of 17/18. These two sites are by themselves at the end of a cul de sac and would make for a great small group outing. Book early though, I’ve honestly never seen these available when I’ve gone to reserve a site at Murray.

Beyond that, sites numbered 15 or higher in general are more shaded and have a more forested feel. I never like to say something is a bad site, because it’s a matter of preference, but the lower numbers definitely tend to be a little less private. Site 5 for example is on a bend in the road and completely open. I’ve been at plenty of campgrounds where this is the norm, but given how wooded the sites get further in, it definitely stuck out.

In my opinion, I wouldn’t go for the single digits in general if other sites are open, just because there’s less shade. That said, if you’re there for the mountain bike trails alone, then 1 and 2 are likely perfect for you. They’re right at the entrance to the campground, which sits at the junction of the Lost Loop and the long Murray Lake Trail, which connects with the rest of the park’s trail systems.

If you want a wooded, more secluded feel try for something closer to the lake itself. Site 20 and up all seemed like good options. This is the area that we made home for the weekend, and it made for a very peaceful experience, or at least as peaceful as anything is with three young boys in tow.

Wrap-up

Our stay was delightful, as always. Like I said at the start, it’s a little different with a park where I’ve camped numerous times, but it still manages to be enjoyable each time. For you seasoned campers there isn’t necessarily anything that jumps out as a “must-see” here that would make it worth a long drive or going incredibly out of your way. However, the park checks all the boxes for a great weekend experience, and this certainly won’t be the last time my family will be spending time at Brighton Rec.