Saturday afternoon was spent at Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park.  The park has reopened in stages following the Big Flood, with the final piece being the new campground opening April 2010.

The Scour Trail starts in a big parking lot off highway N north of the park entrance and winds through the woods until you come out onto the scour.  I didn’t cross it, opting to stay on the north side and walk “upstream”.

Looking “upstream”

Looking “downstream”

At the point the trail first emerges on the scour is a pavilion that features, in addition to more lizards, some displays that explain the geology of the area and the flood of 2005.

Signs like this are fairly common throughout the park now:

Walking further up the trail gives you a pretty good view of the new reservoir and the area where the old one failed.

Then I headed over to the main park area to see the shut-ins and hike the eponymous trail.  The Shut-ins Trail starts out very “touristy” – asphalt, wooden boardwalks, etc but eventually turns into a natural surface trail that actually scared some people away – they were afraid of falling down the hill.  Hurrah!

Once the trail reaches its southern extreme it starts back, with a long climb.  Yes, several glades along the way, with some nice views.

I spent the night here again, in the walk-in camping area.  Day 2 finished.