Johnson Shut-Ins
Missouri · height not recorded · Last verified 2026-05-15
Flow at Johnson Shut-Ins is light today (4 cfs) — visit for the geology, not the volume.
Expect dry conditions today — don't drive out for this one. Flow is at 4.7 cfs (bottom 21% of the last 30 days, vs. 346.7 cfs average). The 7-day NOAA forecast shows no significant rain.
Right now
Streamflow
4.01 cfs
East Fork Black River · 28m ago
Overnight
66°F
Mostly Clear
Wednesday
83°F
Sunny
Today's daylight
Sunrise 5:58 AM · Sunset 8:20 PM · 14h 21m
Snapshot built 8m ago. Sources: USGS · NWS LSX.
Johnson Shut-Ins is a waterfall in Missouri. Height has not been officially recorded. Access details and conditions have not yet been verified in person by Fallspots — the data on this page comes from OpenStreetMap and USGS GNIS.
Johnson Shut-Ins is in Missouri. It drops along East Fork. The base sits at roughly 863 feet of elevation. Drive time is about 17 minutes from Arcadia. OpenStreetMap shows a trail within 0 meters of the marked location, though the name isn't recorded. No public parking is recorded within 2 km, so a longer approach is likely. This is one of the more frequently visited falls in the state by our popularity model. Source records come from OpenStreetMap.
Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park is a public recreation area covering 9,432 acres (3,817 ha) on the East Fork Black River in Reynolds County, Missouri. The state park is jointly administered with adjoining Taum Sauk Mountain State Park, and together the two parks cover more than sixteen thousand acres in the St. Francois Mountains region of the Missouri Ozarks.
Is the water flowing right now?
Most waterfall sites don't tell you this. The waterfall itself is almost never gauged, but a USGS streamgage in the same watershed can tell you whether snowmelt has started, peaked, or run dry.
USGS gage 07061270 · 0.9 mi away
East Fork Black River near Lesterville, MO
View live discharge data →
30-day streamflow
Below 30-day average↻ Same date last year: 9.4 cfs · 50% of last year — significantly drier
Compare to nearby falls
If this one isn't the right fit, here's how it stacks up against the closest documented falls. Every column is filterable on the site — not buried in 13,000 reviews.
| Waterfall | Distance | Height | Trail | Dogs | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson Shut-Ins (this page) | — | — | — | — | — |
| Mina Sauk Falls | 6 mi | — | — | — | — |
| Wolf Pen Hollow Waterfall | 13 mi | — | — | — | — |
| Big Drop | 21 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Cats Paw | 21 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Waterfall (seasonal) | 29 mi | 10 ft | — | Y | Free |
Questions visitors ask about Johnson Shut-Ins
Answers built from our structured data. If a question isn't here, the fact is unverified — we'd rather omit than guess.
How far is Johnson Shut-Ins from a major city?
Johnson Shut-Ins is 12 miles from Arcadia (about 17 minutes' drive).
More waterfalls in Missouri
Where it is
37.5393, -90.8380
Sources and live status
Where we got the data, and where to check current conditions before you drive.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson's_Shut-Ins_State_Park
Wikidata (Q14704332)
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14704332
GeoNames (4392675)
https://www.geonames.org/4392675/
Last verified by Fallspots: 2026-05-15
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Marina and Theo verify pages one road trip at a time. If you've been to Johnson Shut-Ins recently, your local knowledge improves the page for everyone. Pick the kind of contribution that fits — every email lands in our inbox and gets read (and credited when we publish).
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