There is a campground, river access, show cave, and, of course, Round Spring. We may come back by here on Friday on a float trip, so I will try and get pictures of the spring then.įrom there, we headed down the road and stopped at Round Spring. Well, the water had come up a bit in the past few days with all the rain, and the river had a pretty good current with it, so we decided we really did not want to try and make it across. There is a spring here that dumps into the Current River, but it is on the “wrong” side of the river, and you would have to get to it either buy canoe or wade across the river. Along the way we stopped at Pulltite campground and river access. Next, we headed to Loggers Lake, also in the Mark Twain NF.Īfter that, we wound up on Scenic Hwy 19, north of Eminence, and headed south towards there. It was kind of a neat place, although the trail could use some attention, especially a little weed-eating every now and then. I saw a huge alligator snapping turtle along the trail. Kasie stayed in the pickup while I hiked for about an hour or a little less. We first stopped by a place called Crane Lake, in the middle of the Mark Twain National Forest, just east of Johnson’s Shut-Ins a little ways.įrom there, we headed to the next swimming hole, but stopped at a place called Grasshopper Hollow along the way. We soon were on our way to drive to a few different swimming holes in the area to check out and grab a few pics of, but it remained cloudy all day, and never really got any warmer than the low 70s. And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I got back to camp, the rain let up! I ran to the pickup and headed back to camp. Along the trail to the shut-ins, I saw a group of beautiful pink flowers that I had not photographed before, but just before I arrived at them, the skies opened up and it really began to pour. I was pretty much finished, so I decided to pack it up and head back to camp. After about an hour or so of taking pics, it began to lightning up in the clouds, and the thunder began to get closer and louder. It sprinkled off and on on me while I was taking pictures, but never enough to make me stop. I was able to get in some good pictures, although it was still a little too light out for good water pics, but at least it was mostly cloudy. The skies were turning dark and rain was headed our way, so I am sure that kept most people away.
When I arrived at the shut-ins, there was no one else around, except for one park employee picking up trash. Actually, I did not even get up until after 7:00 am, but the day-use part of the park, where the shut-ins are, does not even open up until 8:00 am. The next morning, I decided to get up early while she slept in for a few more hours.
The trail will take you through this scour channel, and you get to see some really neat rocks and geology. The water scoured the earth down for many feet, all the way down to the bare bedrock. There is a trail at the park called the Scour Trail, and basically it takes you out into the scour channel, which is the path, or scour, that all the water wiped out when the Taum Sauk Reservoir Dam broke back in December of 2005, spilling more than 1.3 billion gallons of water down the mountain side, and destroying Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park, especially the campground. Then, we decided to go for a quick little hike. I cooked some pork chops and corn on our little charcoal grill while Kasie read her book, and then we just enjoyed the evening for a little while.Īfter dinner, we headed on over to the new visitor center and gift shop, to see what it was all about. It was only about 4:30, but we had enough swimming with hundreds of other people for one day. After swimming for a few hours, we decided to head back to camp and get dinner started. Because of all the people running around everywhere, I decided it was not worth taking the camera down to the shut-ins, and would wait until Monday morning to take pictures, hopefully with no one else around.
There were what seemed like a thousand people all over the swimming area, from little kids right on up to a few very elderly couples. It was hot out, and the cool water felt great. We arrived a little before noon on Sunday, and after dropping off the camper trailer and setting up camp a little, we headed on over to the shut-ins area of the park. We had a blast swimming and wading round for a few hours on Sunday, just relaxing and enjoying the swimming area. Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park was just awesome, except for all the other people.
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