Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Johnsons Shut Ins State Park

 Johnson's Shut Ins is another Missouri State Park located in the Southeast region of the state.

Y'all, this place is so beautiful, amazing and fun!  It's a 10/10 recommend.

When you drive into the park, you have to follow the signs to the Shut Ins Entrance.  They do monitor the number of cars going through and once they reach the limit, the Shut Ins are closed for a while to allow people to clear out.  We were car 61 the day we went and got a parking spot right up front.  

We visited only the Shut Ins while we were there and is the most popular place in the park. Shut Ins is a term for a gorge in a stream.  This stream happens to be the Black River.  The Shut Ins are hard, volcanic bedrock.  The river flows through the steep slopes of the ancient mountains in the area.  The rhyolite rock does not erode easily and makes the shut ins what it is.

There are small water falls, both big and small pools, smaller streams, deeper sections, natural water slides and fish that hang out with you.  This place was so much fun!  We enjoyed the smaller stream where the water got deeper.  There were also places where people could jump off the rocks into a v deep section.

We did a little bit of the hike and one part was straight up the mountain!  There are also a lot of stairs on one part of the boardwalk.

Enjoy some pictures!








Can you see the kids?



One of the deeper sections in the center of this.
Also, lots of fish!







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