Shut-Ins Trail — Attraction in Bismarck

Parking lot at trail head is large, river shop is attached to clean bathrooms, changing rooms and lockers available for day use cost only 4 quarters. The trail is paved and then becomes a boardwalk. There are several entrances to the water, first is more of a shallow creek like entrance. The second is into the rapids , bolder area with falls. The third is up some stairs and a short hike thru the woods to a pool of deeper water. If u choose the 2nd entrance and go in the falls, large bolder area, Please head my warning and be careful! There is a lot of algae, the rocks are slippery. The water is cool, refreshing and clear. However it rushes creating quite a current even on green flag days. After falling we stayed on our bottoms as much as possible thru the falls. U can just slide the algae and current pushes u down the falls. Some of the falls are deep, between 3 and 6 ft deep and surrounded by large rocks. It is a beautiful area, take a look at my pictures. The one of our feet was in deep water we were swimming but u can clearly see out legs, feet and rocks on the bottom. I wouldn't recommend taking anyone that can't swim. Even in the shallow water the algae makes the rocks slick, be careful...

During our Sunday overnight camp stay at the Johnson Shut-Ins state park we initially visited to check it all out. The River Store is open during weekends only at the head of the trail and both changing rooms and washrooms are adjacent and stay open during the week. Access Point 1 is an easy .2 walk down paved trail to experience the water. Access Point 2 brings you to the boulder s to have fun climbing and winding through to the larger pool. Access Point 3 delivers you to a high point to follow a hard steep decline trail to maneuver through the waters edge boulders to sit and dangle your feet, sit into boulder chairs or take a refreshing plunge. We revisited the trail on Monday to enjoy more solitude as there were only about 10 cars at the trailhead....

The blue trail is irresponsibly poorly marked. Do not take the blue trail from the end of the boardwalk. There are multiple paths marked with blue blazings and it is VERY easy to get turned around. I’ve been hiking in state parks for a couple decades now and I have never gotten lost like we did here. There is a sign that says the blue trail is a very short trail near the parking lot so we assumed we were a short 10 minute walk from the parking lot through the woods. An hour later we ended up on the backside of some mountain near a sign that said “Taum Saul trail 22 miles -” and showed the “shut ins trail” beck where we came from. Tried to follow the blue blazings back and came out somewhere completely different that where we started.

Do...