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There are so many hidden gems around Northern Michigan. Jaw droppingly beautiful spots that are almost hard to believe.
Michelle Dunaway and chief photojournalist Corey Adkins takes us to one of those places today in the Upper Peninsula for MiGreatPlaces.
Call it Palms Book State Park, Big Spring or Kitch-iti-kipi. Or many would simply say amazing, gorgeous, mesmerizing.
"It's beautiful out there. The pool is kind of an emerald green. You can see it's crystal clear to the bottom, you can see the sand churning on the bottom."
A little off the beaten path near Manistique, but this state park is well worth the trip.
"The spring itself is 300 feet across 45 feet deep. It stays a constant 45 degrees all year long it will not freeze. 10,000 gallons a minute comes up through the bottom, through the limestone fissures."
Park Officer Patrick Nelson says this may not be here today if not for the the passion and foresight of a man named John Bellaire.
"He was a five and dime owner in Manistique at the turn of the century. He fell in love with the area. It was actually being used by the lumber company as a garbage dump. He saw through it, saw the beauty that was in it. He persuaded the Palms Book Lumber Company to sell this to the State of Michigan for $10."
The development here started in the 1930's and it's been a big draw ever since.
"We'll get 50,000 to 60,000 people a year just to come see the Big Spring."
And it's easy to see why.
"If you take the raft, the best viewing is on the opposite side. You will see sand tumbling around where the water is coming up through there, and that's where the big fish like to hang out too. You've got a lot of brookies, browns. there's a lot of big monster lake trout in here too."
And there's even a story behind one it's more familiar names.
"Kitch-iti-kipi is the Indian legend that there was a young Ojibwa chief who his bride-to-be wanted him to prove his love so she was going to jump from a cedar bow and he was to catch her. Well he didn't and he drowned and that was the legend. It's a legend I say because John Bellaire admitted later in his life that he had a poet friend of sorts and they developed the legend to help attract people out here, he really wanted people to see what it was."
John Bellaire certainly succeeded in his mission to preserve the beauty and share it with others.
"Speak with someone who has been here. This place has such a fan club anybody who has been here would tell them they're crazy if they didn't see it it's a very popular attraction primarily because of it's beauty and serenity."
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