We made our first trip to the St. Louis area in October 2020, but weren’t able to visit the famed Gateway Arch, other than to ride our bikes around it. See all about that visit and our stay in St. Charles, up the river, here.

After spending 5 months in Ohio while I dealt with my breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, we decided our first adventure would be to go to St. Louis and finally go up in the Gateway Arch. And it didn’t disappoint.

Where we Stayed

With a view like this, we chose to stay at Draft Kings at Casino Queen RV Park. While our premium site was a little pricy at $75/night for a full-hookup site, we thought the location was worth it for one night.

We were able to walk over the bridge to Gateway Arch National Park and not have to worry about finding parking for our F-350 dually.

The view of the Arch at night from the park was spectacular.

Visiting The Arch

We had no idea that there was an entire museum, shop, and restaurant under The Arch! There is also a theater showing a movie about how The Arch was constructed. There are several different ticket packages you can purchase depending on the experience you’re looking for, so I’d refer you to the Gateway Arch website for all the information.

We chose the movie and tram ride package. We got to The Arch an hour before our scheduled movie time which gave us plenty of time to go through the museum. We do recommend that you watch the movie first before going on the tram tour.

The tram cars are a little tight, so if you are at all claustrophobic, this may not be the ride for you. They say that five people can fit in the car, but as you can see it would be a tight squeeze. However, the ride was smooth and only took a couple of minutes. We had a nice conversation with the gentleman who was sharing our car, which made the trip go pretty quickly.

Along the way, the door is the window that looks out into the stairway and inside of The Arch. That was pretty neat to see. The stairs are not open to the public.

Once you exit the car at the top, then the real fun begins!

I was very surprised to find that you could not feel any sway from that high up!

We also thought it was cool to see our home from that high up! We parked The Beast next to the stairs up to the bridge so we wouldn’t have to walk so far after our day.

Dining

There were many dining options near The Arch since it was just a few blocks from the baseball stadium. Of course, the best way to find a good place to eat is to as the locals. One of the ladies who was working at The Arch recommended Salt and Smoke BBQ in Ballpark Village. It did not disappoint. The brisket and pulled pork were both delicious. And there was so much food that we didn’t even leave room for dessert!

Conclusion

After walking over six miles around St. Louis and back across to the casino, we would definitely recommend a stop here to check this off your travel bucket list.

We’re Mike & Jennifer Skinnell, and together we are The Rambling Quilter. We travel the country full-time in our 41ft. fifth-wheel pulled by our F-350 – affectionately named Beauty & The Beast. Mike still works part-time, and Jennifer writes our blog, travel articles, and contemporary fiction. Our blog is purely for information and entertainment purposes. However, if you’d like to support Jennifer’s writing career, her author link is below.