Chain of Rocks Park — Attraction in St. Louis

Hooray for GRG (Great Rivers Greenway), the National Park Service and the city of St. Louis for finally improving this area both aesthetically and security-wise. It can no longer be accessed 24/7. The gates open at 7:00 a.m. And contrary to what Google Maps claim, closes roughly one-half hour after sunset – according to the GRG website. Google says 10 p.m. GRG also says security cameras are in place.

The only real downside to the entire park is…no REAL restrooms, just porta-potties. I asked a GRG employee about this. Apparently, it’s a violation of some city code or ordinance to have a building with running water over what was once a landfill. You sure couldn’t tell it was once a landfill by looking at it now!

There are 2 reasons I’m going with a 4 star review vs. all five. As previously stated…no real restrooms, just porta-potties. The ride up from downtown is slowly but surely becoming worse & worse. Parts of the Riverfront Trail (Mississippi Greenway) are in disrepair. Cracks in the asphalt need to be filled in with a sealer. Some parts might be better off being replaced. For an example…St. Louis County maintains Grant’s Trail (Gravois Greenway) much better than St. Louis City...

I have to say I was very excited about this park and was following the work in Route 66 magazines. As a general rule I stay out of the city of Saint Louis since it’s so dangerous and the people who run it and live there prefer it that way. The park looks nice but even though they tried putting in security, it’s just not safe ( mind you they could have just fixed the crime in Saint Louis like a normal functioning city would do and that would fix the entire problem). There is a security guard playing on his phone who doesn’t notice anything and call box with an out of order sign. My wife freaked out because there was a man of about 50 years old with a girl who was about 12 and they were way to affectionate for a father and daughter. I explained to my wife that in cities like Saint Louis and Baltimore this goes on all the time and no one cares since they know plastic straws are way more dangerous to society and focus on banning those while ignoring all other quality of life. She wanted to report it but I told her no one would care or do anything about it since we should focus on...

This is a very nice addition to St. Louis County. I heard of the bridge from the TV series American Justice, about two women and a man being forced to jump from the old highway in the 90's by muggers. The area has had much crime, and the west-side lot was closed for several years due to automobile vandalism and break-ins of those who parked there.

When I took a job at the NGA I tracked the site down and wanted to explore it. I always had to cross over to the Illinois side and park there. I would usually walk across, have a snack on the west-side park, and walk back, enjoying at the Route 66 memorabilia on display along the way.

When the west-side park opened, I attended the grand ceremony, and from then on would park on the west-side and walk over to the east-side. The west side is now patrolled and a caretaker occupies it during the day to discourage vandalism.

The views from the bridge are spectacular, including the two historic water intake towers in the river. These towers inspired my to arrange a group tour of the water treatment plant for St. Louis nearby with fellow...