A friend of ours asked for recommendations of local places to take her children during their summer vacation. She planned to visit one new location each week for the kids to explore and learn. I thought it was a great idea, so I assembled my 10 best suggestions.
She did not put any geographic restrictions on the list, but I tried to limit it to locations within an hour or so of Jefferson County, and I excluded the obvious tourist spots in St. Louis including the Gateway Arch, St. Louis Zoo, and Science Center. Their greatness goes without saying, and you probably could identify 10 cool places to visit that are entirely inside the big city’s limits.
I always recommend Mastodon State Historic Site when people ask me what Jefferson County has to offer. The excellent museum documents our area’s natural history with prehistoric evidence. The playground equipment and picnic area provide great day activities for a family. Three hiking trails range from easy and accessible to a challenging workout.
My other county suggestion is the Sandy Creek Covered Bridge. While it doesn’t have an abundance of nearby attractions, the site is history you can touch, crossing the creek the way area residents did more than a century ago. It is one of only four covered bridges remaining in Missouri.
St. Louis County has many locations for learning and exploring, a number of which can be paired up for a full day of activity. For example, Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center is a short drive from Lone Elk County Park. One is an educational mecca, and the other is a drive-through wildlife viewing opportunity. Grant’s Farm is not far away either. Note: Lone Elk is better in the winter when you can see deeper into the woods.
Another St. Louis County attraction offers a cool immersive experience. The Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House surrounds visitors with dozens of butterfly species and about 150 tropical plants. Admission is $8, but it’s free for members of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, also a Botanical Garden property, features many native plants in their natural settings.
Because our local access is somewhat limited, the Mississippi River meanders by unnoticed most of the time, but the big river is a globally important natural asset worthy of personal discovery. The Audubon Center at Riverlands in West Alton, Mo., focuses on the birds of the region and highlights the magnitude of the confluence of the North American continent’s two biggest waterways.
Venturing further from the metropolitan area, Elephant Rocks State Park near Ironton is more than a bunch of super-sized stones. It is natural history in the form of a huge playground. Elsewhere in the Arcadia Valley/Ironton area you’ll find Johnson’s Shut-Ins and Taum Sauk Mountain. The former offers a unique setting to get your feet wet while the latter lets you view the horizon from the highest peak in the state.
A couple of other locations beyond the one-hour driving range are well worth a summer day trip. The Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City puts history on display with many paintings and murals and provides a civics lesson or two, and the nearby Central Dairy offers ice cream as a nice reward for a long car ride.
Last year we went to Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site near Independence. It’s a longer drive, of course, but if you don’t mind spending the night in Harry Truman’s hometown, you’ll enjoy learning all about how fabric was made in the 19th century. There’s also a historic house and farm there you can tour.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas for the Leader outdoor news page, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.