First, I decided to stay at Edmund Babler State Park, which is about 45 miles west of downtown St. Louis, for a few days to get caught up on work and be fairly close to the Arch to make a day trip there. I considered renting a car, but ended up driving, based on the advice of someone at the park service in the Arch that I could park in a lot at Poplar and First Street near the Arch.
However, the area around the Arch is under construction, and I found that neither of those two streets actually exists anymore!! Both have been torn up by construction as the grounds of the Arch is being enlarged, which has not only removed all the onsite parking, but those two streets. They have built a tunnel for the train tracks that you used to have to cross to get to the river, which is good, but it took a lot of additional land to do that. Also, while the museum has been enlarged and the Arch is open, you can only approach the Arch from the southeast side. The only parking that is available for cars is in the downtown area, which means a very long walk around the construction. Also, you have to buy tickets in the Courthouse downtown or online. I bought them online and so only needed to bring the confirmation number to the Arch. I strongly recommend you buy tickets online or you will have an extra several block walk!!
There are almost NO signs in downtown telling you which streets go through to the Arch. And actually, even if they someday will go through, almost none do right now and this will be true for a whole TWO YEARS!!!
To make things worse, there was a football game in the stadium just a couple of blocks away, resulting in even more streets than usual being closed by police!! I literally drove around for an hour trying to figure out how to get to the arch. MY GPS KEPT TAKING ME TO CLOSED OR NONEXISTANT STREETS!! And then I had to turn the beast around with all the crowds heading to the game. I almost gave up. I ended up parking on a horrible angle on the levee. I will post photos in a minute. And when I tried to leave, I started to back up and turn around but my wheels started slipping to the point I was afraid I would end up in the river. So I backed up 1,000 feet and through the pay booth to get out!
So, if you want to visit the Arch, here are my suggestions for at least the next two years:
1) Buy tickets online and bring your confirmation code. Pick up tickets inside Arch.
2) There is a Casino directly across the river called River Queen which has a campground and a huge parking lot. You can stay or park there and take the metro from the parking lot, across the Mississippi directly to the Arch.http://www.casinoqueen.com/rv-park.aspx
3) The other option is to park a few miles from downtown at the site of the old World's Fair and take the metro from there. There is a historical museum and zoo in that area which is called Forest Park. I did not park there, but I was told by residents that they have big lots and a couple of metro stations.
Note: I DID turn off my refrigerator while parked. It was a cold day anyway. And no, my camera is not tilted!
Use to be a floating McDonalds along that stretch of the river.
