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
I can only imagine how big the arch is… I had no idea you could go up it!
I think it would definitely be something fun and interesting to do one day!
Often drove by the Arch, but never stopped.
We did stop for the falls, but there wasn’t that much water when we were there.
If you get the chance you should take a quick stop sometime. It’s pretty neat to see up close and you can’t beat the $1 parking!
Great shots of the Arch! Thank you!
Thank you so much! 🙂
When did you take this trip? Because we went to St. Louis in March of 2016 and everything was under construction/renovation around the arch. I’d been to the museum nearby that is underground a few years ago but I couldn’t see evidence that it was even there anymore, but then we weren’t allowed inside the construction zone. Perhaps it’s all done and open again.
We actually took this trip in July of this year. There was no construction around so I guess that got finished a little while ago. It appeared that everything was up and running again!
Construction is finished with a wonderful pedestrian mall leading to the west.
Oh, awesome! I didn’t know that. 🙂
Breathtaking pictures! Thank you for sharing with us.
Isn’t That Charming.
Thanks for reading! 🙂