Millstream Gardens Conservation Area — Attraction in Fredericktown

I love going to this place, it’s always very pretty. And it’s rare to see more than a few other people, if anyone at all.

Last I was there, I walked the Turkey Creek/Silver Mine Trail, but I turned around at the day use area before the bridge, so maybe I didn’t actually walk the Silver Mine part of it.

I started from the pavilion area within Millstream Gardens, where there is an incredibly cool tree that had a twisted trunk that looked like there was a big loopy knot in it.

Part of this trail follows an old road - the first indication was a nice wooden bridge at the beginning, and you could see remnants of asphalt for quite a while.

It crosses over the Tiemann Shut-ins Trail at the Cats Paw Overlook, and then continues, eventually getting into US forest service land.

The trail was very discernible throughout, but narrowed quite a bit when you got out of the conservation area and into the forest service land. The surface was good, from smooth dirt and pine needles to rockiness to boulders and roots - it was never boring, for sure!

I was there mid June, saw lots of really pretty flowers and some cool caterpillar thingies. The water level in the whole area was very low, so there were really no great shut-ins to see, and the St Francis river was barely flowing in some parts. Still pretty!!

The hike was great though - at that picnic area I had a snack and got to use the privy before I walked back, so it was a really good hike.

According to AllTrails, I walked just over...

I had been to Johnson's Shut'-ins the day prior and there were probably few hundred in attendance. We followed up the next day at Millstream Gardens' Tiemann Shut-ins and found we were only ones there for an hour. The place is wonderful. Beautiful water, massive rock displays, and little waterfalls scattered all over the place. If the water had not been as cold as it was, I would have been swimming through the whole thing. If you have the chance, do not...

This Missouri conservation area is located on the St. Francis River. The river has many shut-ins here and it's very scenic. We took the Tiemann Shut-ins trail which is wheelchair accessable and about a mile long. It ends at an overlook of the river. There is no wheelchair access to the river but otherwise it is accessable. The restrooms could use a...