On the way to a recent spring camping trip in the Ozarks, I passed by Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park and stopped by to check it out. As you may know, the "Shut-ins" is Missouri's favorite swimming hole. It made news in December of 2005 when a hilltop reservoir owned by power company AmerenUE failed and sent a raging wall water down the valley of the Black River and right through the park. The campground and most of the park facilities were completely washed away. After a two-year restoration, parts of the park re-opened in 2007, including the shut-ins, themselves. The new campground just recently opened this Spring. To their credit, AmerenUE compensated the state for its losses and the new facilities are much better than the old ones. I was curious to see what this reborn natural area would look like.
Johnson's Shut-Ins is a stretch of the Black river where the water has been forced into a narrow valley and over a massive jumble of boulders and waterfalls.
As it turned out, I was there for the opening day of the new Visitor's Center. This impressive structure houses offices and a fairly nice museum.
The Center has some nice mosaic work in its patio
.
I don't remember the old park having a museum, so it was nice having interpretive displays on this interesting geologic area.
The flood washed many boulders down the canyon and they now are randomly spread out over the flat bottom areas of the park.
As are all Missouri State Parks, the Shut-Ins has plenty of nature to enjoy. The walking path to the best part of the river takes you past beautiful wildflowers and delicate butterflies.
This beautiful mosaic illustrates how all life is tied together into an intricate network. I saw several children having fun identifying the animals in the image.
CYA AmerenUE is of course concerned for your safety and I assume they paid for this new warning system to let us know the next time the dam breaks. The new walkway, by the way, was very nice and constructed with weatherproof materials.
As the river tumbles over this long stretch of rocks, it forms numerous pools and rapids for summertime fun.
The state does not provide lifeguards at the Shut-ins so it, too, must make sure that people understand that they swim at their own risk.
Here the river has scooped out an almost perfect circular basin in the rock.
It's hard to imagine how even a raging torrent of raging water could do much to these hard rocks. This is a stitched picture of four separate shots.
Finally, here are a few more pictures of the Shut-Ins under better lighting conditions. At sunset, the golden light creates beautiful relections in the many pools and riffles.
