The unique camping experiences people search for most fall into a handful of types: treehouse stays, glamping in safari tents or domes, yurts and rustic cabins, floating water parks, river floats that start at your campsite, camping on a trail network, holiday-themed weekends, dark-sky camping, big-group campsite layouts, and a fishing lake where the kids outfish the adults. Some of these take a special resort. Others happen at an ordinary-looking family campground once a year or every weekend.
A note on what we offer: our two Michigan parks, Walnut Hills Family Campground in Durand and The Oaks Campground in Munith, don’t have treehouses, safari tents or domes. We say so below, point you to where those stays exist, and then describe the seven experiences on this list that you can actually book with us.
10 unique camping experiences worth trying
1. A treehouse stay
Treehouse camping is the most searched unique stay and the hardest to find. In the Midwest it’s mostly offered by small specialty resorts and individual owners on vacation-rental platforms, not by campgrounds. When you compare treehouses, check how you get up (stairs vs ladder), whether there’s a bathroom in the unit or on the ground, the sleeping capacity, and the age minimum; many don’t take young children. Expect to book months out for summer weekends. Neither of our parks has one.
2. Glamping in a safari tent, dome or tiny house
Glamping means a furnished shelter you don’t have to set up: a canvas safari tent on a platform, a geodesic dome, a tiny house or a cottage. In Michigan, the state park system is the easiest place to find these. The DNR lists yurts, camper cabins, mini cabins, rustic cabins, lodges and a “reimagined” category of geodesic domes, tiny houses and repurposed buildings, most sleeping up to six with electricity but no running water. Some are run by the DNR and some by concession partners. For a longer look at Michigan glamping options, including where a camping cabin fits, see our Michigan glamping and luxury camping guide.
3. A yurt or camping cabin
Yurts are round, insulated canvas tents on a wood frame with bunks and a table inside; Michigan state parks rent them at several locations. The campground version of this step up from a tent is the camping cabin: one room, real beds, power and a door, with the bathhouse a short walk away. Walnut Hills has two of them, sites 43 and 46, each with air conditioning, a fridge, microwave and coffee maker, a double bed and a twin bunk that together sleep four. You bring your own bedding. Our cabin vs tent camping guide covers what to expect.
4. A floating water park on a spring-fed lake
A floating water park turns a swimming lake into an obstacle course of inflatable towers, slides, climbing walls and trampolines. Most campgrounds that have one float one to four pieces. The Wibit at Walnut Hills has 14, including the Action Tower XXL, two slides, a rock-climbing wall, a rope climb, monkey bars and a trampoline added last season. It’s free for campers Tuesday through Thursday, with a wristband fee Friday through Sunday that covers its cost. Ages 7 and up, in a campground-provided life jacket, with a monitor on duty, and guests under 16 need a parent present. One tradition our team loves: campers on sites 1 to 15 hold up scorecards, 1 to 10, for the dives and belly flops off the big pieces. The Oaks added its own Aquaglide floating park on its spring-fed swim lake in 2026, along with a rebuilt sand beach.
5. Floating a river that starts at your campsite
Camping and tubing in one trip is rarer than it sounds; most river campgrounds are a shuttle ride from the water. Walnut Hills sits on the Shiawassee River, and Cheff’s Canoe Rental, an independent outfit that has run floats here for decades, works out of the campground’s own launch next to the store. You can book a two-hour or four-hour canoe or kayak float, a two-hour tube float that ends at a special pull-out on a local farm, or a 30- to 45-minute float within the campground. Bring your own tube or kayak and you can use two public access points without renting anything. Spring is canoe and kayak season; June through early August is prime tubing. More in our Michigan camping and tubing guide.
6. Camping on 120 acres of trails beside a bird sanctuary
The Oaks is 155 acres, and about 120 of them are trails: several loops through forest and grassland for hiking, mountain biking and golf carts. One loop runs toward the wetlands bordering Haehnle Sanctuary, where sandhill cranes wander over; others cover miles of woods where deer, safe from hunting on the property, barely bother to hide. Mountain bikers can find narrow single-track and the old mud pits left from the property’s 1990s ATV days (the trails are for feet, bikes and golf carts now). Dogs can run off leash on the back trails and in the dog run, and swim in the fishing lake. Guests may even bring a horse over from one of the many stables around Waterloo Recreation Area for a day ride, as long as manure is bagged and the horse is fine around carts and bikes. See our Michigan campgrounds with hiking trails guide.
7. Halloween camping with a haunted trail
Halloween weekends in September and early October have become one of the most sought-after camping experiences in Michigan, and Walnut Hills runs three of them because one, then two, sold out. Staff spend weeks decorating the park. Each weekend has a site decorating contest, pumpkin painting and a candy search in a haystack, a costume contest, trick-or-treating in the evening with the roads closed to vehicles, and a haunted trail that starts mild while it’s light for the little kids and turns truly scary later, with costumed actors. Then DJ Dave’s Spooktacular dance party takes over Pavilion 2. The Oaks hosts one Halloween weekend, the last weekend of September, with a haunted pavilion in 2026 and a haunted trail around the fishing pond planned. Details on the Walnut Hills events page.
8. Camping under a dark sky
You don’t need a designated dark-sky park to see the Milky Way; you need distance from city lights. Both of our parks are remote enough that stars and meteor showers are easy to see from any site. Walnut Hills keeps a fleet of telescopes and hosts a stargazing event. Pick a weekend near a new moon, and check the date of the Perseids in August. Our stargazing camping guide has more.
9. “Circling the wagons” with a big group
A family reunion or club rally becomes a different kind of camping when everyone’s rigs form a ring around one big shared space. At Walnut Hills, the loop of sites 118 to 131 near the beach is built for it: long, wide water-and-electric sites with the utilities running down the center of the circle, so RVs can park sideways across the fronts. The result is a ring of campers around an open middle with a couple of shared fire pits. Groups of 15 or more sites get the pavilion free, and 10 or more sites get it half off. Our group camping guide explains how to book a block.
10. A fishing lake where the fish are as big as the kids
The fishing lake at The Oaks is spring-fed overflow from the swim lake, with an outlet into the Portage River watershed, and it gets very little fishing pressure. The result, in a campground employee’s words: “We’ve seen fish the size of children pulled out of the fishing pond.” One customer photo shows a dad holding his son’s catch, and the fish is nearly as tall as the boy. Kids do best from the dock, which reaches toward the middle of the lake; the back side is for quiet bank fishing. The store sells bait and gear, and keeping fish is allowed, though most people release them so the next kid gets the same thrill. Holiday weekends include a fishing contest for most, biggest and smallest fish.
What are glamping activities?
Glamping resorts usually sell the activities as much as the tent: guided hikes, paddleboard or kayak rentals, yoga, campfire cooking classes, stargazing, farm visits and spa add-ons. A family campground delivers a different version of the same idea, programmed for kids and included with the site. A Saturday at Walnut Hills runs from a kids’ craft at Pavilion 1 (tie-dye, birdhouses, rock painting) to lawn games by the ball field (giant kickball, tug of war, water balloon wars, gaga ball), a food truck for dinner, and a DJ dance party, karaoke or live band at Pavilion 2. Add the Wibit, a golf cart rental to tour the park, scooped ice cream at the store and a river float, and most families say they ran out of weekend before they ran out of things to do.
How to choose a unique camping experience
Unique stays trade predictability for novelty, so a few questions sort them quickly:
- What’s actually included? Bedding, a bathroom in the unit, heat or A/C, cookware. Camping cabins and yurts almost never include linens.
- Who’s coming? Age minimums on treehouses and water parks (7 and up on the Wibit, with a parent present for anyone under 16), nap schedules, grandparents who need a real bed.
- What season? River levels drop in dry Augusts; Halloween weekends book far ahead; May and October are quiet and cheapest.
- Pets? Many unique stays, including our cabins, don’t allow dogs inside. Tent and RV sites usually do.
- What’s the cancellation policy? Specialty units often have strict terms. Ours is on the rates pages.
- Is the experience the place or the program? A treehouse is special because of the structure. A Halloween weekend or a scorecard-waving crowd at a floating water park is special because of the people and the schedule. The second kind is usually cheaper and repeats every year.
Unique camping experiences at Walnut Hills and The Oaks
If you want the water: Walnut Hills has the 14-piece Wibit, the spring-fed lake and beach, river floats from the campground, two camping cabins, three Halloween weekends and the telescopes. If you want the woods: The Oaks has 120 acres of trails, the sandhill cranes, horseback day riding, the fishing lake and the biggest campsites in either park, with the Aquaglide and a new sand beach for the kids. Both run May 1 to October 20 with dynamic pricing, so the same experience costs less in May, October and the weekends around Memorial Day and Labor Day. For more Michigan campgrounds with an unusual setting, see our guides to unique and scenic campgrounds in Michigan and secluded campgrounds in Michigan.
Frequently asked questions
Does GatherGrounds offer treehouses or glamping tents?
No. Walnut Hills has two camping cabins; The Oaks has RV and tent sites only. Michigan’s state parks are the best place to find yurts, domes and tiny houses.
Is a camping cabin the same as glamping?
Not quite. Glamping usually implies furnished bedding and often a private bathroom. A camping cabin gives you beds, power and A/C, but you bring linens and walk to the bathhouse. Think of it as a hard-sided tent. Of our two parks, Walnut Hills is the one that offers glamping-style comfort: the air-conditioned cabins, full hookups, a renovated bathhouse and the Wibit, all at a resort-style campground.
What makes a camping experience unique?
Either the shelter (treehouse, yurt, dome) or the setting and program (a floating water park, a river at your site, a haunted trail, a sanctuary next door). Most families find the second kind easier to book and easier to repeat.
