Johnson's Shut-Ins Campground

The Great Outdoors

Mark Twain National Forest is located right next to Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park. Here you will see incredible landscapes with beautiful forests, hills, rivers, and streams. The park covers over 1.5 million acres of mostly woodlands. There are many multi-purpose trails in the woods, perfect for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and more. In addition to hiking trails, there are plenty of streams ideal for kayaking, canoeing, and fishing. The forest is home to many plant and animal species, including deer, turkeys, rabbits, ducks, foxes, and many more. Other recreational activities available here are ATV riding, scenic driving, nature viewing, wildlife watching, and hunting.Coldwater Conservation Area is about a 90-minute drive southeast when you are RV camping at Johnson's Shut-Ins Campground. This beautiful 120-acre park is mostly covered in forestland. Here you can escape from busy cities for a hike, picnic with your family, or nature viewing. It is also a great hunting location where you can find deer, turkeys, rabbits, doves, and squirrels.Taum Sauk Mountain State Park is a beautiful natural area only about half an hour's drive east of Johnson's Shut-Ins Campground. The park covers around 7,500 acres of land, featuring forests, hiking trails, and the highest peak in the state of Missouri. Even a part of the Ozark Trail passes through the park. And the beautiful views from the top of St. Francois Mountains aren't the only reasons to visit this park; here, you can also enjoy wildlife watching, picnicking, biking, horseback riding, and so much more.

Exploring the City

The Battle of Pilot Knob State Historic Site is located approximately 20 minutes' drive northeast of the RV campground. When you visit the site, you will be able to walk the grounds where the Civil War battle took place, and you can also visit a small museum and watch a movie about the battle. In the center of the field, you can still see the hole created by a powder magazine that exploded during the conflict.Another attraction not too far away is Whistle Junction Visitors Center and Museum. In an old depot, this train museum also highlights local history and displays artifacts, old photographs, and memorabilia collected with the help of local families. You can visit the museum on your own, or join a guided tour.The Missouri History Museum is a perfect place to see when visiting St. Louis, just a two-hour drive away when you're camping at Johnson's Shut-Ins. The museum is home to many permanent and temporary exhibits, programs, and events, including a media room with over 200,000 digitalized documents and photographs you can search through. Some of the exhibits you can see here include "Pulitzer Prize Photographs," "In Focus: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Photographs," "Seeking St. Louis," and more.