Kitch-iti-kipi Springs in Palms Brook State Park isn’t too far from Munising, so it’s a great day trip to add on to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The color of the water is truly as spectacular as it looks in these photos. One of the unexpected benefits of going out on the observation raft was a nice “we’re all in it together” group dynamic among the visitors since there no state park staff person operating the raft or guiding the experience.
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- From Wikipedia: A self-operated observation raft guides park visitors to vantage points overlooking the underwater features. This raft is on a cable that is pulled across the spring pool by park visitors or by a park employee.
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- The Civilian Conservation Corps constructed the raft, dock, concession stand and ranger’s quarters with other groups that participated.
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- From Wikipedia: Kitch-iti-kipi (“KITCH-i-tee-KI-pee” with short “i”s) is Michigan’s largest natural freshwater spring. The name means big cold water and is sometimes referred to as The Big Spring. Its original name was the “Mirror of Heaven” given to it by the early Native Americans.
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- From Wikipedia: Kitch-iti-kipi is an oval pool measuring 300 by 175 feet (91 m × 53 m) and is about 40 feet (12 m) deep with an emerald green bottom. From the fissures in underlying limestone flows 10,000 US gallons per minute (630 l/s) of spring water throughout the year.
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- Fish!
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- The shadow cast by the observation deck on the bottom half of the photo caused the pond surface to reflect the clouds. It was a gorgeous combination of seeing both reflections and what was actually under the water. And those colors!!
