During our recent road trip, St. Louis was the first major stop. I did not know much about the city, so my main objective was to see the Gateway Arch.
We found parking for $1 per hour, and since we had a lot of ground to cover and would not be staying long, this was definitely the best deal for us. It was around a half of a mile walk to the arch. They skies were beautiful, but it was also around 10am and already almost 100 degrees.
The roads in the area are made of brick/cobblestone which was pretty cool. As we approached the arch we could tell it was big, but you can’t really imagine just how big it is until you walk right up and see for yourself.
The arch is 630 feet (192m) tall and is made of stainless steel on the outside.
It was built as a monument of Thomas Jefferson and the city of St. Louis’ vision in expanding the United States to the west.
You can take a tram to the top of the arch for what I can only imagine is a great view. Their website states that on a clear day you can see as far as 30 miles. The trams move at 340 feet per minute and go up every 5-10 minutes.
There is a movie theater and a museum that you can visit that is underneath the arch for a fee.
We then left Missouri and headed towards South Dakota.
Around 8-9 hours later, we saw signs for Sioux Falls. We decided to stop and take a break to check it out.
Sioux Falls is the largest city in South Dakota with a population of around 180,000.
Falls Park was very interesting to see. It is a very nice park with paved walkways and plenty of areas to take in the views of the water features.
There is also a restaurant on site that has great reviews, but we did not take time to visit it.
Apparently Falls Park is a great place to visit in the winter, from mid-November until January for great winter scenery.
Overall, this was a pleasant place to see the sunset on our way to the Badlands.
-Haley
