Nature has our backs. Let’s return the favor.
Our public preserves remain free and open from dawn to dusk – and your support helps keep them that way!
Spirit Springs Sanctuary
Marcellus Township • Cass County • 123 acres
Treat yourself to solitude at Spirit Springs Sanctuary – big, beautiful, and serene in every season.
60 acres
MarcellusTownship
Cass County
Treat yourself to solitude at Spirit Springs Sanctuary – big, beautiful, and serene in every season.
Quick facts
Click to quickly jump to . . .
Maps
Getting there
Natural features & conservation
Preserve history
Photo gallery
Parking
Gravel lot
16 car capacity
Trails
Length: 2.25 miles
Packed dirt trails create a loop which may be shortened by choosing more direct trails back to the parking area. The main trail winds around an inland lake, into the forest, around a buttonbush swamp, over occasional hills, and along a ridge that overlooks the edge of a large wetland that continues off the property. A side trail explores a long peninsula covered in large oak trees that extends into the wetland. Overall, the terrain is mostly flat to rolling, but there are a few steep hills.
Dogs
Dogs are welcome but must be kept on a 6-foot leash at all times. Dog waste must be packed out. Click to learn more.
Restrooms
None
Recreation
Cross-country skiing, fall color, hiking, snowshoeing, spring wildflowers, trail running, wildlife viewing.
Maps
An interactive trail map that allows hikers to follow their progress through the preserve is available for free download from the Avenza Map Store!
1. Add the Avenza Maps App to your phone (available for free on iOS and Android).
2. Download the Spirit Springs Sanctuary Trail Map to your phone.
3. Take a hike!
Prefer to have a paper map?
Click on the map image for a PDF that you can print or leave open on your phone while you hike.
Getting there
Natural features
Spirit Springs Sanctuary has approximately 50 acres of wetlands that are part of the Rocky River’s largest headwater wetland complex.
Hikers first encounter a big pond that’s popular with visitors, waterfowl, turtles, and the occasional beaver. Framed by maples that blaze with autumn color, the pond offers gorgeous eye candy and photo opps.
Spirit Springs Sanctuary also has a large stand of swamp forest – rich with springtime ferns and marsh marigolds – as well as areas of sedge meadow, cattail marsh, and buttonbush swamp.
State-threatened Virginia bluebells, a lovely springtime woodland plant, may or may not be original to the site. They grow in a damp location near the brook that feeds the pond, which is sometimes blocked by the work of beavers.
The upland oak woodlands host a variety of other spring wildflowers, such as the uncommon white trout lily (Eythronium albidum), which is at the extreme northern limits of its range here in Cass County.
Nature has our backs. Let’s return the favor.
Our public preserves remain free and open from dawn to dusk – and your support helps keep them that way!
History
Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy purchased Spirit Springs Sanctuary in 2010, with help from a North American Wetland Conservation Act grant, from 20-year owners Vernon and Alice Miller, who generously made their land available for purchase.
Even before Spirit Springs was a public preserve, the Millers treasured the quiet solitude that its woods and wetlands inspire.
The land’s former caretaker, Clarence Godshalk, was a landscape architect and long-time director of the Morton Arboretum in Chicago. To imprint his vision of a peaceful human-wilderness experience, Godshalk created openings and viewing spots, lovingly maintained by the Millers. Many of these “resting spots” remain throughout the preserve.
Photo gallery
