Driving time from the DragonFly-In Bed
and Breakfast: 20 minutes
The beauty and natural wonders of Missouri’s
most spectacular state park are truly special. Here,
on summer days, generations of swimmers have clambered over
and washed through the numerous potholes and chutes carved
through ancient purple-pink granite rock, in the gorge of
the Black River East Fork. Such unique geologic
features are known locally as “shut-ins” because they are
the result of the water’s flow being confined or “shut-in”
by hard igneous rock, formed during volcanic eruptions more
than a billion years ago.
This natural water-park playground is the
showcase feature of the 180-acre Johnson’s Shut-Ins Natural
Area, but is only a small portion of the entire 8,549-acre
state park. The adjacent 1,100-acre East Fork Wild
Area has a wide range of natural upland and bottomland
habitats, and is dotted with open rocky glades among the
forest stands of native shortleaf pines. Other jewels
include the 9-acre Fen Natural Area and the 18-acre Dolomite
Glade Natural Area. Also nearby is the 4,874-acre
Goggins Mountain Wild Area, the state’s largest, with its
hiking and equestrian trail and the park’s new
campgrounds.
This park made news in December, 2005 when the
old campgrounds, store, office and other infrastructure were
destroyed in the flood resulting from a breach of the Taum
Sauk hydroelectric plant reservoir atop nearby Profitt
Mountain.
Access to the park was limited for the past
three years, while extensive restoration was underway.
However, a popular feature of the reopened park is the Scour
Channel from the flood’s course down the side of Proffitt
Mountain, which can be viewed from a new interpretive
center.
