The Burden Falls Wilderness is a 3,775-acre (15.3 km2) unit of the Shawnee National Forest.

The wilderness is characterized by road-less second-growth hardwood forest, punctuated by a small, seasonal waterfall on Burden Creek.

Unlike most of the state, Pope County and extreme southern Illinois escaped glaciation during the Ice ages, and steep slopes display the effects of lengthy erosion.

Similar geological features in other regions of Illinois were ground into oblivion by the ice.

Watercourses confined by sandstone ledges, of the sort found in Burden Falls Wilderness, are locally known as shut-ins.