We hustled our way east across I-70 through Kansas with the goal of making it near St. Louis the next day. We managed to stop in Kansas City to pick up dinner for the road from Jack Stack, which was an amazing KC BBQ experience. We stopped for the evening on the outskirts of St Louis and began planning our adventure for the next day.
Our sights were set on the Gateway Arch, which was originally a national monument and later became the 60th National Park in 2018. It is by far the smallest national park in the United States, consisting of the arch, a museum, a surrounding park along the Mississippi River, and the Old Courthouse where the famous Dred Scott case originated. We weren’t sure that it would fill up the day, so we took a look at our map and decided to combine it with the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site.
The Grant site protects the family home of Grant’s wife, which is called White Haven, and on which Grant lived prior to the Civil War from 1854 to 1859. Best known for leading the Union Army to victory in the Civil War, Grant later became the 18th President of the United States. President Grant while in office signed the legislation establishing Yellowstone as the nation’s first national park.
The national historic site sits on the same road as Grant’s Farm, which is open to the public and owned by five members of the Busch family. It contains historic buildings from Grant’s log cabin to the Busch family “Big House, along with a wide range of farm animals and other family attractions. We had no idea that the farm was there until we arrived and saw the crowds going; it definitely looked like a popular attraction for the area. We didn’t have time to go, since we had plans already to reach Chicago for the night, but we put it on the list of things to see next time we are in the area.
The next stop was Gateway Arch National Park. We got our tickets to take the elevator to the top of the arch, and found that we had some time to do other things. We ended up taking a riverboat cruise on the Mighty Mississippi River, which seemed like an appropriate way to enjoy the arch. We enjoyed listening to the stories of the river and the city from the guide, while enjoying a nice sunny summer day on the water.
When we docked we walked up to the museum from the waterfront and explored the museum until it was time for our ride up to the top of the Arch. The Arch contains a tram system transporting guests to the viewing area 630 feet high. It was pretty neat to be on top of the Arch, and we took a bunch of photos up there. But at the same time it was a small space, there were plenty of other people up there, and we were all wearing masks. So definitely not our top moment in a national park. We grew tired of fighting the crowds pretty quickly, and we caught the tram back down.
After a little shopping at the gift shop, we were back on the road on our way to Chicago to enjoy the beach in the nation’s 61st National Park, Indiana Dunes, the next day. On our way we passed the Buc-ee’s replica Wally’s just north of Bloomington, which proclaims itself home of the great American road trip – we didn’t stop though. We ended up stopping for the night at a hotel on Melton Road just outside of the national park, because we thought it would be cool to be staying on a road with our last name.
In the morning we ended up driving around for a bit and accessing the beach at the Porter Access Point, where there was a small parking area for national park visitors. It wasn’t our best planned beach adventure, and after a little while splashing in the water and walking up and down the beach we decided to pack it up for the day and finish our trip to Detroit. We really needed beach chairs, an umbrella and other gear to properly enjoy the park, and all we really had was a toddler that wanted to splash in the water.
