Maybe if the world were a little calmer and greener, and everybody had a big, self-mowing back yard with a lake… But most of us don’t. We need our parks: They keep us sane and happy and connected; give us breathing space; kindle romance and absorb kid and canine energy. If Forest Park is the heart of St. Louis, then these parks help circulate its oxygen.
Click here for a Google Map of the St. Louis area parks highlighted in this feature.
NATURE
Klondike Park
Here’s how to make a single weekend both rugged and civilized: 1. Reserve a camping spot at Klondike Park—ideally, a primitive site tucked away from others—for a Friday night. On the way to your camp site, rent a bike ($25 per day) at Katy Bike Rental in Defiance. Then build a bonfire before bedtime. 2. Start Saturday morning by hiking around the park’s scenic lake, observing the white high-silica sand that was used to create glass at the one-time quarry. 3. Bike along the Katy Trail, running just south of the park, and follow it west to Augusta. 4. Sample the wines at Mount Pleasant Winery and Augusta Winery, then head back to your campsite before sunset. 5. After a restful slumber and packing up, stop at Trail Smokehouse in Defiance for an early lunch.
The Nature Institute
The view from atop the bluffs is stunning: the Mighty Mississippi stretching into the distance, the Great River Road wrapping alongside it, those distant smokestacks towering over the trees… Well, maybe that last part’s not so great, but otherwise, the view from Olin Nature Preserve and the adjacent Mississippi Sanctuary is unparalleled. While exploring the sanctuary, follow the western-most trail, past Creek Trek Waterfall, to a scenic overlook. At the preserve, take the 1.4-mile Loop Trail, with a brief detour at the former skeet-shooting range. And on the way out, stop at Talahi Lodge, where you can relax and enjoy a picnic. (Note: The Nature Institute's trails are closed until April 1, because of a restoration period.)
Edward “Ted” and Pat Jones–Confluence Point State Park
When exploring nature, where better to start than the spot where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked on their storied expedition? (OK, so technically, the rivers then met two miles from where they intersect today.) At what’s now Confluence Point State Park, you can follow an interpretive trail through the floodplain. There, at the shore of the confluence, witness the rivers’ raw power, as the current effortlessly sweeps entire trees downstream. Gaze along the banks and overhead to spot the wildlife that dots the landscape. Then, on your way home, pass through the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary and stop at the Audubon Center at Riverlands, where you just might see 1,000 trumpeter swans if it's the right time of year, and learn about bird migration patterns, and peer through spotting scopes. Students and faculty at Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts designed the Riverlands Avian Observatory, a bird blind near the center’s Heron Pond. The modern design was named a finalist in the Architizer A+ Awards, garnering international attention.
Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center
This 112-acre gem isn’t as sprawling as the state parks west of it, but Powder Valley has a lot going on, particularly for families. The location is convenient, near Interstates 44 and 270 in Kirkwood. The park’s three paved trails are easy to navigate, with Tanglevine Trail accessible to hikers with disabilities. And the on-site learning center is among the area’s best, with a 3,000-gallon aquarium, a 250-seat auditorium, a two-story tree exhibit, a wildlife-viewing area, and more. The only downside? Fido has to stay at home.
Lone Elk Park
There’s a poignant story behind the name. After World War II, the one-time military ammo depot transformed into a park stocked with 10 elk from Yellowstone National Park. That herd grew to more than 100 by the late ’50s, when the military again seized control of the grounds—and the elk were exterminated one winter for safety reasons. But one bull escaped, wandering the hills alone for years. Finally, in 1966, the same year the land was renamed Lone Elk Park, locals purchased six more elk from Yellowstone. Six bison joined them in 1973, and the herds have grown since. For those who dare to venture out of their cars, White Bison Trail makes a 3-mile loop through the park, allowing visitors to get relatively close and personal with the elk. On the way out, stop at the World Bird Sanctuary, and pay homage to another iconic North American animal, the bald eagle. But keep in mind that dogs, those other beloved beasts, are prohibited at the park.
Cliff Cave Park
Missouri is the Cave State, so no list of naturecentric parks would be complete without visiting a cave. Cliff Cave is among the best-known, and it’s St. Louis County’s second-longest cave. In 2009, a gate was added to protect the endangered Indiana bats that live inside. Nonetheless, you can follow the rugged 3-mile Spring Valley Trail to the face of the cave, hike or bike along the 5.1-mile paved Mississippi Trail, or stroll along the 1-mile River Bluff Trail for a view of the Mississippi River and surrounding valley.
ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE
Howell Island Conservation Area: This low-lying island in the Missouri River, located near Wildwood, is accessible by following Olive Street/Eatherton Road.
Louis H. Bangert Memorial Wildlife Area: Just south of the Blanchette Bridge, this 160-acre island in the Missouri River is accessible via the Katy Trail.
Maple Island Conservation Area: This spot, located near Alton, Ill., is popular among fishermen.
Pelican Island Natural Area: Adventurers can reach the island at the heart of the 2,260-acre area by boat, launched from the mainland adjacent to Sioux Passage Park in North County.
Walkers Island: A causeway on the southeast side of Horseshoe Lake, located near Granite City, Ill., extends to this island, another prime fishing spot.
HISTORY
Our Two Beginnings
The world has claimed Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (it’s on the UNESCO World Heritage List), and archaeologists come from everywhere to excavate here. Peer at their digs, then climb 100 feet to the top of Monks Mound, the largest earthen mound in the Americas. “People don’t think of Indians having cities,” says Cahokia historian William Iseminger, “but this was America’s first”: a highly civilized metropolis that in the year 1250 was larger than London. The Mississippians built other mounds nearby—including one across the river, near the site Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau would choose for the village of St. Louis. The city’s Norman grid is now shaded by the Gateway Arch and the Old Courthouse. The grounds of the 91-acre Jefferson National Expansion Memorial park are “almost sacred to our history as a nation,” says local historian NiNi Harris.
Fort Belle Fontaine
It’s 1806. Zebulon Pike leaves from this new cantonment on the Missouri River to explore the great Southwest (where Pikes Peak awaits its name). Two months later, exhausted at their journey’s end, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set up camp here, and their pals in the Company of Artillery fire off 17 rounds in their honor. By day, the fort’s cottonwood walls absorb the stories of soldiers, merchants, and Sac and Fox trappers who meet here to trade furs for vice (whiskey, tobacco, knives) and elegance (fabric, glass beads). By 1939, teens in reform-school cottages at the Missouri Hills Home for Boys have replaced that rowdy mix. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt visits and sits amid 300 flowering trees to hear a concert on the stone Grand Staircase, built by her husband’s Works Progress Administration. Today, the early machismo’s gone, and the 1930s grandeur is stained by an elegant melancholy, but you can still tell that this place mattered.
Jefferson Barracks
Missouri’s new military barracks opened six days after President Thomas Jefferson died. It was named in his honor. Jefferson Barracks would play a role in every U.S. war that followed. Its founder, Col. Henry Atkinson, led an action that started the Black Hawk War. JB funneled men and materials to the Mexican War, served as a hospital for both sides during the Civil War, and trained soldiers for both world wars. Jeanette MacDonald and Judy Garland sang for the troops at the park’s amphitheater, built in the 1930s. Decades intermingle at JB, but the single theme is courage.
Compton Hill Reservoir Park
On the night of the full moon, climb the 170-foot Compton Hill Water Tower, and see 360 degrees of the city sparkle. Built in 1898, the tower is one of a handful left standing in the U.S. (three are in St. Louis). Engineer James Kirkwood chose the site; the city’s water division wanted reservoirs to be in parks, purified by trees and fresh air. Sculpture wasn’t mandatory, but Compton Heights has a beauty: The Naked Truth is a tribute to three German-American newspaper editors. Adolphus Busch, who was donating the lion’s share of the cost, asked the German sculptor to drape the truth discreetly. He refused. In compromise, she was cast in bronze, rather than glaring white marble.
Marquette Park
“Boy, there’s a lot of history packed into that little 15-acre park,” says NiNi Harris. “It was the site of a hospital for Union soldiers during the Civil War; the site of a very large orphanage and industrial school; the site of tryouts for the 1948 Olympic [water] polo team; and the location for filming The Game of Their Lives.”
Bellefontaine Cemetery
In recent years, you might have seen clever billboards with tag lines like "The other botanical garden." That's not just some PR boast; Bellefontaine Cemetery is a certified arboretum. On its 314 acres, Bellefontaine Cemetery boasts 1,100 shrubs and more than 5,000 trees from more than 200 species. And the cemetery is expanding its gardens, focusing on sustainable, drought-tolerant native species. Bellefontaine also is home to foxes, raccoons, and other wildlife. The cemetery has a two-year partnership with the Audubon Society, which is doing a bird count (with 130-plus species counted to date) and recommending native grasses, shrubs, and trees to provide additional habitat for the area's migratory birds and small mammals. Then there are Bellefontaine’s other attractions: its architecture, art, and history. For instance, more than 50 beer-related people are buried there. The cemetery holds a historic Beer Baron’s Tour every fall. It also offers a range of free guided tours from March through November. Visit bellefontainecemetery.org for details.
Scott Field Heritage Air Park: Located near Scott Air Force Base, the park includes six historical types of aircraft.
STROLLING
Lafayette Park
The oldest park in St. Louis, Lafayette is a perfect square, surrounded by Victorian architecture. Enter through any of several wrought-iron gates, and make your way toward the centerpiece: a lake that Victorians once paddled in swan boats. Real swans remain, and on the grassy field beyond, the Perfectos crack skinny vintage baseball bats. In the southeast corner’s romantic little Rockery, an iron bridge arches over a pond. Check out the cannons removed from a British frigate, the HMS Actaeon; the formal statues of George Washington and Thomas Hart Benton; and the late Bob Cassilly’s concrete frog sculpture, smirking from the playground.
Tower Grove Park
This wooded Victorian strolling park rewards meandering. Its myriad kinds of trees could chart every shade of green, and they attract 200 kinds of birds, from red-shafted flickers and monk parakeets to ospreys and ring-billed gulls. Henry Shaw developed the park to give St. Louis “a grand pleasure ground,” with wide lanes for horse-drawn carriages, gates guarded by zinc griffins, and exotic pavilions and gazebos. Every few feet, there’s something to see: lions copied from the tomb of Pope Clement XIII, heroic sculptures (Shakespeare’s here), busts (including Mozart), and antiquities (columns from the Old Courthouse and stone “ruins” from the old Lindell Hotel, reflected in one of the most picturesque ponds in St. Louis).
Carondelet Park
“This park helped a lot of marriages survive retirement,” says local historian NiNi Harris, who’d see men fishing from the pergolas or playing pinochle at Lyle House. Tree-lined boulevards and old brick homes with character surround the “undulating landscape,” so prized by 19th-century landscape designers. In the ’30s, some of the sinkholes were merged into a shallow, picturesque lagoon. The YMCA’s Carondelet Park Rec Complex adds a little splash, with its lazy river and water slide, and a Great Rivers Greenway trail hooks Carondelet to Jefferson Barracks and run to Soulard’s Lyon Park.
Francis Park
The town square of St. Louis Hills, Francis Park is cornered by four churches and outlined by a stream of walkers, bikers, and joggers who like counting their 1-mile laps. Originally the farm of David Francis, the park is almost as lively as the World’s Fair that he spearheaded. People chat on mosaic benches by the formal lily pond; they go to art shows and car shows, old-fashioned band concerts and Grub & Groove rock ’n’ roll restaurant tastings. Kids shriek down the sledding hill, hunt Easter Eggs, slurp cocoa at the Christmas-tree lighting. On summer nights, astronomers set up telescopes on the sidewalks. And Friends of Francis Park is partnering with the Missouri Department of Conservation to plant native gardens for even more interest.
Clifton Heights Park
Say you’re in Manhattan’s Diamond District, sifting through bag after bag of chipped, flawed, cloudy stones, and you come upon a small, perfect, brilliant-cut emerald. That’s Clifton Heights Park. Ringed by Victorian houses and Arts and Crafts bungalows, it has a lake that’s scooped deep, a basin protected by steep grassy slopes. Two fountains soften the air, and a viewing deck and boathouse add visual interest to the gentle, tenth-of-a-mile lap.
Broemmelsiek Park: The Astronomical Society of Eastern Missouri hosts public viewing sessions on Friday nights.
VIA FLICKR/WOOLBRIGHT
FOREST PARK
The Gem of the City
A look at our most prized park's dramatic rebirth
It all started when they buried the River des Peres. First, they took the Forest Park section underground to make room for the World’s Fair. But in 1915, a flood of slimy, gray water convinced the city to bury another 18 miles of the river, and soon a giant concrete tunnel had to be built to keep sewage from seeping into the park. It was an engineering coup, but it cut the park’s lakes and lagoons off from each other, leaving them to stagnate, scum over with algae, and slurp away their banks.
Over the next six decades, the surrounding land grew more crowded, less serenely beautiful. Designed for carriage rides and picnics, Forest Park’s winding roads were now crumbling and clogged with traffic, its streetlights broken, its shadowy glens hide-outs for drug deals and illicit sex. Alarmed, civic leaders wrought consensus from a series of community meetings in the mid-’90s. John Hoal, a determined architect from South Africa, took calm charge of the master plan. He started by layering transparent sheets that mapped terrain, land use, the original River des Peres course, and the changes over the years. Instantly, it became obvious: The park needed a waterway again. And doing it right would cost a pretty penny.
Forest Park Forever threw itself into fundraising, the city issued bonds, voters approved a sales tax—all told, St. Louis raised $102.6 million, setting a national record for urban-park renovation. By 2004, a century of wear and tear had been cleared away, and the park looked new again. In an exuberant bulb blitz, volunteers planted 27,800 perennials in four days.
Today, the Grand Basin at the foot of Art Hill looks like something you’d see in Paris; The Boathouse feels like summer in Maine. Instead of manicured artifice, there’s nature—artfully designed. Breezes ruffle tall native grasses around Pagoda Island. A long waterway curves past prairie and savannah, around Picnic Island, under arched wooden footbridges, through wetlands. Flat rocks create weirs—natural dams—and the water riffles, glides, cascades, flows into the next lake or lagoon.
Everything is connected again. Shrubs and flowers are native to Missouri, so they flourish. Yells from the handball courts or ball fields are balanced by places of utter quiet or gentle romance; the bustle of the museums by lone cyclists and the college kids who study by the waterfall. The institutions aren’t at odds with the surrounding landscape; the park’s surprises continue a visitor’s experience of science, art, history, zoology, or horticulture. Graffiti and trash are no longer a scourge; the park’s users are fiercely protective.
For good reason.
ART
Citygarden
Igor Mitoraj’s sculpture Eros Bendato (that wonderful giant head) is one of the landmark sculptures here. In nice weather, sit and watch: Not a moment will pass without someone peeping out of one of the hollow eyes (and not always a kid). Every piece here is its own sort of landmark. Even if you can’t bring the title or the artist’s name to mind, you probably know it visually—for instance, Erwin Wurm’s Big Suit or Tom Claassen’s Untitled (Two Rabbits). Jim Dine’s Big White Gloves, Big Four Wheels explores the distance between Disney’s Pinocchio and Carlo Collodi’s original, spookier story; it’s thematically echoed by Tom Otterness’ darkly comic Kindly Geppetto, which depicts the carpenter as a cartoony figure taking a swing at Pinocchio’s head with a mallet. World-class abstract sculpture also abounds here, including Mark di Suvero’s monumental Aesop’s Fables, which now serves as a visual connector to Richard Serra’s Twain, a work that stood alone on the Gateway Mall for years, marooned and misunderstood. Another main point of interest: the 14-foot-long video wall, which screens films, photography, and Cinema at Citygarden, a springtime series of juried shorts from local filmmakers. (And if you have an iPhone, be sure to download the free Citygarden app before you visit; you can find it and more info at citygardenstl.org.)
Laumeier Sculpture Park
You can approach Laumeier as a series of surprises and mysteries—tie your shoelaces tight, put your dog on a leash, and lose yourself in its 105 acres. Or explore it as a tourist, plotting out what to see before you go. Internationally revered for its world-class collection—with pieces from such artists as Niki de Saint Phalle, Donald Judd, and Beverly Pepper—Laumeier is still as pioneering as it was when it was incorporated in 1977. The permanent collection began with 40 pieces donated by sculptor Ernest Trova, and his presence here includes the 1974 COR-TEN sculpture Profile Canto IV, as well as Falling Man/Study (Wrapped Manscape Figure). One of the park’s best-known and best-loved pieces is Tony Tasset’s Eye, the giant fiberglass eyeball that’s modeled after one of the artist’s own eyes. (It’s also, we’re guessing, the backdrop for a thousand selfies.) Other pieces, like Dan Graham’s Triangular Bridge Over Water, are tucked in the woods. And some are essentially invisible, such as Eric Hall’s SITE/SOUND, a series of aural portraits of the sculptures composed by St. Louis musicians, which you can hear via smartphone by downloading the tour from laumeier.org. Among the newest additions is the $4 million Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center, which opened in fall 2015, as well as the recent renovation of the site's 1917 Estate House into the Kranzberg Education Laboratory.
Chesterfield Central Park
Public art is sprinkled all across Chesterfield, with quite a bit in Central Park. One of the best-known pieces is J. Seward Johnson’s The Awakening. Seventy feet long and 5,700 pounds, the five-piece aluminum sculpture is meant to look like a bearded giant struggling to free itself from the earth. (A similar sculpture at National Harbor, just outside Washington D.C., is a popular draw.) It not only attracts kids, who love to try climbing on its enormous hands and knees, but also has become a popular wedding spot. The park also has two 9-foot stainless-steel Trova sculptures, too, Gox A and Gox AB (Gox No. 3 can be found at Laumeier), as well as Maura, a figurative piece by Don Wiegand. The latter statue, a bronze figure of a running girl mounted on a stone base in the shape of her shadow, was dedicated on June 26, 1999, at 10 a.m., and its shadow lines up with its stone counterpart on that day every year. Aspire, an interactive sculpture by Rod Callies comprised of four massive steel spires painted white, can be found alongside the Stream Walk by Chesterfield Amphitheater, which often stages popular events, including concerts, movies, and festivals.
Shaw Park
Trova made his home in St. Louis County, so it’s appropriate that you’d find the sculptor’s work in the county seat’s oldest and largest park. Though Shaw is a recreational park, it’s also home to some carefully chosen public art. The most recent acquisition is a site-specific piece by nationally recognized sculptor James Surls, an 18-foot-tall, stainless-steel and bronze sculpture titled Molecular Bloom with Single Flower, which celebrates the immediacy of nature. Though it’s the newest, most visible piece in the park, there are rewards in seeking out other pieces here, including Rod Baer’s brightly colored Dancing Chairs, Carol Fleming’s gorgeously ancient-looking Egg (in the Sensory Garden), and that Trova piece, Geometric Abstract No. 2, located in the Moneta Garden. One of the best times to appreciate art in Shaw Park is during Parties in the Park, hosted in nearby downtown Clayton on the second Wednesday of the month throughout the summer.
Grand Center's Pocket Parks
Located in the middle of Grand Center’s bustle, Strauss Park is named for late arts patron Leon Strauss. (Fittingly, the park is situated across from the Fox Theatre, which he helped save.) Nearby, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts teamed up on a cutting-edge take on this pocket park with PXSTL, a competition that calls for proposals for temporary installations for the empty lots at 3713, 3719, and 3721 Washington, with the most recent project being A Way, Away (Listen While I Say), created by artists Amanda Williams and Andres L. Hernandez. And stop at the nearby Ellen Clark Sculpture Park, located on the corner of Lindell and Grand boulevards, a spot that doubles as a public-arts destination and free unofficial dog park.
Queeny Park
The park’s Greensfelder Recreation Complex plays host to carefree ice-skaters from October through February. But it also transforms into an arena of hard hits, flying elbows, and ingeniously clever names when the Arch Rival Roller Derby, the St. Louis GateKeepers men’s roller-derby team, and Midwest Sport Hockey’s leagues take the floor.
Penrose Park
“Mr. Bumpy Face” (so called for its many bumps and undulations) is one of only 27 velodromes in the nation where cyclists can go to race around a NASCAR-like track. Efforts are underway to return the site that once hosted USA Cycling’s Elite Track National Championships to its former glory, with a much smoother concrete track.
Greensfelder Park
At first, the 50-foot Alpine Tower doesn’t look like much: simply a series of logs, cables, ropes, and trees strung together. As groups attempt to scale it, however, they find it requires a blend of problem-solving, trust, and teamwork.
Youth Activity Park
Dardenne Prairie probably isn’t the first place that an X Games enthusiast would look for fellow skateboarders while in St. Louis. But this park’s 33,000-square-foot skate course—the largest outdoor park of its kind in the state—offers myriad challenges and obstacles: bowls of varying difficulty, a street course, ramps… The facility even includes a rock-climbing wall.
Brown Road Park
Ten acres of this St. Peters park were transformed into a BMX track, complete with straights, berm turns, and rollers. Today, the St. Peters BMX Gateway group hosts races and practices here for off-road cycling enthusiasts.
Creve Coeur Park
Visitors without boats can still get out on the park’s popular 320-acre lake by visiting Creve Coeur Lake Rentals, which rents out kayaks and paddle boards ($10 for the first hour and $5 for every additional hour) and canoes ($15 for the first hour and $5 every additional). And while the park already offered no shortage of sports-related options—kayaking, disc golf, trails, archery, tennis courts—the Go Ape Treetop Adventure Course is also located in the upper park area.
Quail Ridge Park: This Wentzville park is home to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Hall of Fame & Museum.
KIDS
Tilles Park
Though known for its holiday lights display, St. Louis County’s Tilles Park draws St. Louisans year-round. More than 1,000 people visit the park every day, says Mike Flad, landscape architect and project manager for St. Louis County Parks. Among the draws is a playground that’s designed for children of all capabilities. The slide’s made from stainless steel, rather than plastic, allowing children with cochlear implants to use it. (Plastic slides tend to create static, which can damage the implants’ circuitry.) “All of the playground surfacing is rubberized and poured-in-place, and the playground is coated with a rubberized coating,” says Flad, “so when the kids are walking, they tend to create less static electricity.” The park also has a soundboard musical instrument, bongo drums, and water play, with approximately a dozen nozzles at ground level that activate at different times. Even the jungle gyms include activities at lower levels, which are accessible to children in wheelchairs. “They can interact with the rest of the children,” Flad says. “This is for everybody.”
Faust Park
Attracting more than 2,000 visitors per day, this Chesterfield park can keep a brood amused for hours. The St. Louis Carousel’s calliope is reason enough to visit the park. Built in the 1920s, it once stood inside the Highlands Amusement Park. After a fire destroyed the park, in 1963, it moved to Sylvan Springs Park before being restored and installed in Faust Park. Today, a ride costs just $2 per person. Apart from the carousel, Faust boasts a popular playground, as well as Historic Village, which now includes two former blacksmith’s shops. The former Spanish Lake shop dates to 1881; the other shop, from Fenton, dates to 1908 and was moved to the park last year to serve as the village’s general store. Finally, walk to the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House, which is run by the Missouri Botanical Garden, for countless photo ops.
Suson Park
If your child yearns for the country, head to this 98-acre park in South County. Your little ones can learn to fish at one of three trout-stocked ponds. They also can see all sorts of animals, including miniature horses, a Percheron horse, a Belgian horse, a miniature Sicilian donkey, rabbits, turkeys, and chickens. And after Mother’s Day, check out piglets, a calf, baby goats, and baby lambs. “One of our most fun programs is Farm Fridays,” says Kyra Kaltenbronn, manager of park program services for St. Louis County Parks, referring to the popular summertime events geared toward kids ages 2–12. (Visit stlouisco.com/parks for dates.) “We have hayrides; pony rides; fishing lessons; face-painting; farm games like Find the Needle in the Haystack and riding pedal tractors around cones; and tours of the farm,” says Kaltenbronn.” And there’s a large playground with lots of climbing options. “It is one of our signature parks, and it is just great."
Museum of Transportation
Though it may seem odd to include a museum in a list of parks, there’s a reason: The St. Louis County Parks department runs this 130-acre site, and half of the exhibits are outside. The Creation Station, a hands-on learning center designed for children age 5 and under, is located in the education center. Outside, visitors can board a trolley that departs from the Roberts' Pavilion Platform on the hour and at :20 and :40 past the hour. “Everyone can ride a streetcar from almost one end of the museum to another,” says Molly Butterworth, the museum’s cultural site manager. Visitors also can explore railroad cabooses, steam locomotives, and historic passenger railcars. “We have a tugboat that was on the Missouri River and a World War II aircraft that was in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day,” adds Butterworth. “It’s a great opportunity for kids to put real three dimensions to what they’re learning in books.”
Towne Park
This 109-acre St. Charles County park features a reconstructed homestead, formerly known as the Pink Plantation. For kids, that may hold a certain amount of allure, but the Nature Explore Classroom will undoubtedly be a stronger calling card. The classroom consists of multiple learning spaces, including areas focusing on music and movement, messy materials, sand play, nature art, wildflowers, building, dirt-digging, balance, and water. The park also includes a fishing pond, a forest-themed playground, rain gardens, and hiking trails.
Rocket Park
It’s actually called Deer Creek Park, but most know it as Rocket Park. With a space-themed playground that includes a rocket ship, this Maplewood park remains a favorite for kiddos. Older visitors might be drawn to the volleyball court, baseball fields, shelters, and a trail that connects to other parks and the green space surrounding Deer and Shady creeks.
Don't Forget...
There are many other parks worth visiting. Here are just a handful.
- Bee Tree Park: Best view of the Mississippi River
- Jaycee Park: Best St. Charles playground for all abilities
- Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park: Best city-skyline photo op
- Mastodon State Historic Site: Best place to see a mastodon skeleton
- Shaw Nature Reserve: Best green space worth the $5 price of admission
HIKING
August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Center
Watch for the serene view of Lake 19, located midway along the looping trail.
Must-Hike Trail: Busch Hiking and Biking Trail
Distance: 3.2 miles
Castlewood State Park
A series of overlooks above the Meramec River, from atop the park’s “castles” (limestone bluffs), provides some of the most scenic views west of St. Louis.
Must-Hike Trail: River Scene Trail
Distance: 3.3 miles
Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park
Pack a picnic, then take a spur trail midway along the looping trail to stop and enjoy lunch at the Bates Picnic Area.
Must-Hike Trail: Dogwood Trail
Distance: 2 miles
Hawn State Park
About a half mile from the trailhead off Park Drive, there’s a sweeping vista. After hiking Hawn, visit the double arch at nearby Pickle Springs Natural Area’s Trail Through Time.
Must-Hike Trail: Whispering Pines Trail–North Loop
Distance: 6 miles
Meramec State Park
Copper Hollow Spring is halfway along the looping trail. (Remember to pack plenty of water for the long hike.)
Must-Hike Trail: Wilderness Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Pere Marquette State Park
A lookout point atop McAdams Peak provides a scenic stop near the east end of the trail.
Must-Hike Trail: Goat Cliff Trail
Distance: 1.7 miles
Rockwoods Reservation
Near the trailhead, a historic 40-foot kiln—the path’s namesake—rises over the rugged trail.
Must-Hike Trail: Lime Kiln Loop Trail
Distance: 3.2 miles
St. Francois State Park
Look for the point in the trail that crosses Coonville Creek and a serene, cascading mini waterfall.
Must-Hike Trail: Mooner’s Hollow Trail
Distance: 2.7 miles
Washington State Park
After climbing the stone steps that compose the trail, stop and gaze out at the Big River valley.
Must-Hike Trail: 1,000 Steps Trail
Distance: 1.5 miles
Weldon Spring Conservation Area
The hike takes approximately five hours, but the view from atop the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River is worth it.
Must-Hike Trail: Lewis Trail
Distance: 8.2 miles
