‘Wow’-worthy parks in St. Louis: 16 not-so-obvious choices

And you probably known Tower Grove Park, with its collection of brightly colored Victorian pavilions, its beloved Clydesdale, Moonshine and the fake ruins that should be tacky, but somehow aren’t.

You may also be familiar with Carondelet Park with its stately lake, its impressive boathouse and its beloved rec center.

Pere Marquette State Park has its mighty lodge, along with the famous fried chicken served there. Lone Elk Park has its elk and its bison and its deer that look at you like you’re the one who doesn’t belong there.

But the St. Louis area has much more than these. The region is home to more than 200 city and county-owned parks, from tiny Hotz Park in Edwardsville (870 feet, the size of a one-bedroom apartment) to, of course, Forest Park (1,326 acres, somewhat smaller than the city of Clayton).

Each park has its share of amenities or pleasant views. Each is lovely in its own way.

But we’re not interested in the ordinary. We set out to find local parks that are wow-worthy.

And we’re not talking about nature’s awesome glory, or anything boring like that. Every park features glorious vistas and beautiful nature in one respect or another. We’re talking about spectacular amenities that were made by man.

The biggest parks are obvious. We searched for the extraordinary at some of the lesser-known parks in the area.

And what we found? All we can say is: Wow.

2924 Brazeau Avenue, Brentwood

The new three-acre playground at Brentwood Park has just about everything you could want in a playground, including a concrete diorama of the nearby confluence of Black and Deer creeks, complete with dams to regulate the flow of water.

The playground also boasts a fairly short, non-scary zipline and a somewhat scarier steep and curvy slide.

A merry-go-round is built at ground level so no one gets hurt falling off, and the ground surface is made from an ultra-soft and bouncy substance. A rock-climbing wall is built over the same substance for safety and a pair of short slides are fashioned from rollers, so the slider can slide faster.

On one platform is a music section, with a steel drum, bongo drums and a xylophone that comes with color-coded sheet music for such songs as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

Two extensive jungle gyms offer climbing fun for different levels of ability. And a playground kit mostly made of wood is a nicely compact structure with all the bridges and towers and things to climb that kids have come to expect.

Also, there is a silo. It’s actually a water storage tank, but it looks like a silo. Either way, it seems like an odd thing to place in a playground.

16365 Lydia Trail, Chesterfield

The big draw at the Chesterfield Central Park, other than the manmade (or man-enhanced) creek, the amphitheater and the aquatic center, is the art.

The park grounds are adorned with any number of pieces of statuary. Most are similar to what you would find in the fountain of one of the better shopping malls. But one piece is genuinely notable.

The Awakening II, by John Seward Johnson, is a copy of a 1980 sculpture also made by Johnson. On a massive scale, it depicts a giant struggling to free himself from the earth.

The giant’s face emerges from the ground, and above it an arm. On the other side of the seemingly submerged body is part of a hand. Below is the knee, with a section of the thigh and calf, and below that is the tip of a foot.

It’s just five pieces of a body, but it a dynamic and even moving work of art.

10 Gateway Drive, Collinsville

The most amazing part of the amazing Collinsville Aqua Park is located in the water park’s rear corner.

It’s called Monsoon Mountain, and it is a water-based playground that looks like it was designed by Rube Goldberg.

A structure three-stories high is a vertical labyrinth of stairs, bridges, water slides, turning wheels and water, water everywhere. On one side, a small bucket fills with water and dumps it out on your head. On another side, a MUCH bigger bucket fills with water and dumps it onto a slanted surface (which lessens the force of the water), which then dumps it onto your head.

Other amenities include a large, shallow pool with fountains and a gentle slope, plus a rope course crossing the pool on covered inner tubes. A lap pool features a rock-climbing wall. Two twisting water slides nearly 20 feet high splash down into one pool, and inner tubers float down a lazy river in another pool.

Collinsville residents pay $17, $15 for seniors and children. Non-residents pay $25, $20 for seniors and children.

13236 Streetcar Drive, Maryland Heights

The Go Ape! treetop adventure park in the midst of a county park is strictly for people with acrophilia — a love of heights.

From platforms high up in the trees, as high as 25 feet, thrill seekers cross wobbly wooden bridges with slats missing to get from one tree to the next. Or they test their balance on swaying wooden poles no more than a few inches wide. Or they walk from one tree to another on a single cable, like a tightrope.

Of course, there are other cables or ropes to hold onto, and the participants are always firmly tethered to another cable above them to keep them from falling.

And at the end of each of the five courses is the main event, a zipline to bring you safely back down to earth. These are of different heights, lengths and speeds, with the last one maxing out at 200 feet long, through the trees.

Considering all the wildlife in the park, there is a good chance you’ll land on a family of deer at the end.

The Go Ape! company that runs the adventure park, and others throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, is a for-profit venture  and not part of the St. Louis County Parks system. Admission is $59.95 for people 16 and older, $49.95 for people ages 10-15. No one under 10 is admitted to the Go Ape feature at the park.

Once you get done with dancing from treetop to treetop, the rest of the park offers nature hikes and opportunities to paddleboard or row a boat on a sylvan lake, or to enjoy the lake’s sandy beach.

120 North Ballas Road, Kirkwood

Ebsworth Park is technically 10 acres, but the only part anyone is interested in is a compact 1,900 square feet.

That’s the footprint of the Kraus House, which was designed in the late 1940s and early 1950s by America’s preeminent architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

It couldn’t be designed by anyone else. The style is unmistakable: the long, low, horizontal silhouette, the blending of brick and wood (in this case, Tidewater cypress), the obsessive attention to detail that brings together every aspect of the home.

The house is only open for tours given by knowledgeable docents. Admission is $20, $10 for children 7-12, and the tours are only given at certain times on certain days. The schedule and ticket information is at ebsworthpark.org.

Because it is a St. Louis County Park, the grounds are officially open from dawn until dusk, even when the driveway gate is locked. You can park in front of the gate and walk up the hill to see the house’s exterior, which is impressive by itself.

Natural Bridge and Vandeventer avenues

What grabs you the most about Fairground Park are the imposing, castle-like bear pits. Because what park doesn’t need bear pits?

There are no bears in the bear pits. All that is left is a building facade and a story.

Here’s the story: The park was originally the site of the St. Louis Exposition, an agricultural and technological fair held annually from 1856-1902, except during the Civil War. It had the largest amphitheater in America, with 12,000 seats, and also a racetrack for horses.

A zoo was added to the site beginning in 1876, including the bear pits. But the exposition stopped being held in 1902 as the city and the world turned its attention to what became the World’s Fair of 1904.

The racetrack closed in 1905 when horse racing was made illegal in Missouri, and the new St. Louis Zoo took over the animals and some of the structures when it was founded in 1910.

After the park’s swimming pool was integrated in 1949, a riot resulted in 12 injuries, six of them serious. Four people were arrested. The pool, originally the largest in the world, was closed. A new, smaller pool was opened in 1958.

Eichelberger Street and Donovan Avenue

In a pine grove on the west side of Francis Park is a charming fairy garden, with tiny houses and little figures of fairies and trolls. A sign reads “Everybunny welcome.” It can’t possibly be an official part of the park, but somehow it fits in just fine.

The park forms a long rectangle, centered around a long and rectangular lily pond. In and around the pond, along with the lilies, are fanciful statues of a mermaid reading a book and a dragon, along with other mosaic artworks.

Next to the park’s six pickleball courts and six tennis courts, and near the playground and the well-maintained baseball diamond, is a handsome stone building that is clearly the best-looking concession stand in town. It doubles as a beer garden, with beer, cocktails and eight types of pizza on the menu.

Two handball courts are in good condition and apparently see some use; a racquetball court nearby could use a little work.

A small, native-plant garden has its own peaceful gazebo, and a terraced spot called Emil’s Garden offers another place for quiet contemplation.

Even if it were not for the Daniel Boone connection (the pioneer and folk hero lived there, off and on, for the last 16 years of his life), this park featuring 19th century buildings would be worth a visit.

More than a dozen structures, built in the early 1800s and later moved to the site form a sort of village: You can see a small house, a lovely chapel, a general store, a carpenter’s shop, a grist mill and more.

But the highlight is the house Boone lived and died in; it was built by and for his youngest son, Nathan. A handful of the furnishings belonged to the Boone family; the rest are of the period. The home itself is large for the time and circumstances, and rustically comfortable. The historic interpreters call it a “frontier mansion.”

And if an interpreter asks you the name of Boone’s dog, the answer is Cuff.

7801 Town Square Avenue, Dardenne Prairie

Think of it: An entire park devoted to skateboards, bicycles, roller skates and scooters.

It’s big, too. At 33,000 square feet, the concrete bike-and-skateboard course is the largest in Missouri, filled with hills and hillocks, and railings for the skateboarders. Different sections are designed for riders of all abilities.

But that’s just part of the park. Bleachers overlook a pump track, one of the largest asphalt pump tracks in the state. With a pump track, you generate momentum by moving your body up and down, rather than peddling, and this version offers sharp and rounded turns, and a couple of places to put a little air between you and the ground.

There is also a somewhat easier, more traditional road course. It offers smaller hills and moguls, plus a couple of interesting twists such as riding through hoops and a steep, wood-plank, sharply banked turn.

Lafayette Park is a particularly serene urban oasis. And perhaps the serenest spot is a little stone grotto with a little stone-lined pond. Turtles live in the pond, and swans glide elegantly on top of it.

Above the pond is a graceful iron bridge built, according to a sign, to replace a more rustic wooden bridge that was “destroyed by the Great Cyclone of 1896.”

Across from the pond is a gazebo surrounded by plush plantings of uncommon beauty.

Another setting of serenity is nearby. A placid lake featuring a towering fountain, like Old Faithful, attracts dozens of Canada geese and at least an equal number of ducks.

They like an urban oasis, too.

4550 College Avenue, Alton

On paper, the Gordon F. Moore Park is one of the most amazing parks in the region.

It’s not big on nature, but look at what it offers: eight tennis courts, 10 baseball diamonds, 27 holes of golf designed by Arnold Palmer, six play areas (including one inclusive area), 19 soccer-or-football fields, a 13-acre fishing lake, an Oriental garden, a rose garden, a hosta garden, a freedom shrine, a short nature trail and a waterfall.

Unfortunately, as of June 26 it also has a massive sinkhole, 200 feet wide and growing, right between two of the soccer fields and caused by a mine collapse under the grounds.

So the park is closed now. Officials with the Alton Parks and Recreation Department do not know when it will be reopened.

2801 West Meyer Road, Foristell

 The walking trails are lovely, the pond is serene, but what really makes Oglesby Park stand out is its spectacular playground. Or playgrounds.

The first one you come to from the parking lot is a rope-climbing jungle gym, and it is enormous. It’s the size of a helicopter landing pad. It’s so big, it has its own slide, as if a colossal jungle gym were not enough fun on its own.

The next section is officially designed for children 2-12, but it’s really for kids 2-5. This playground set consists of platforms with bridges and slides. It even has rock climbing, which is to say there is a plastic rock, and you can climb on it. Kids can also play with a modern version of the classic Fisher Price Farmer Says See ‘n Say toy (“the cow goes moo”).

The final section, for children 5-12, is the biggest playground set you’ve ever seen; it’s the size of a Harrier jet. It is so extensive and complex that some of its bells and whistles have their own bells and whistles. Literally, it has two bells. And bongo drums. And a xylophone.

When we were there, every parent said, “It’s time to go.” And every child said, “Just one more time. Pleeaase?”

4700 North Kingshighway Boulevard

There are only 27 velodromes in the United States, or 18, or 16, depending on whom you ask. One of them is tucked away in the northern reaches of Penrose Park.

A velodrome is a tightly banked, 1/5 mile concrete track for bicycle races. The Penrose Park track is open to anyone who wants to use it, and hosts races on Thursday nights.

You can see the velodrome from northbound North Kingshighway Boulevard, and it looks to be in good shape (it was resurfaced in 2019). But for the life of us, we can’t figure out how to actually get to it.

Use of the velodrome is free.

3501 Sports Drive, Edwardsville

Seemingly carved out of the Plains, this park is a sports-lover’s dream come to life. It has everything you could want in team sports, except NILs and illegal gambling. And more is still to come.

At the moment, the park boasts four little league and softball-sized fields, each with soft artificial turf, spiffy dugouts and scoreboards. Three synthetic multi-purpose fields and three natural grass fields are lighted for day or night soccer, football, rugby or other games that need wide, open spaces. And the 12 pickleball courts probably see the most use.

Construction is underway to make it even bigger. Four more baseball fields are being added, but these will be larger, for high school and college ball. Fourteen more pickleball courts are coming, including one with bleachers for championship play. Everything will be lighted.

The concession stand prices are reasonable, too: $4 for an all-beef hot dog, $4 for a beer, $3 for a 20-ounce soft drink and $1 for a bag of chips.

6073 Wells Road, unincorporated St. Louis County north of Arnold

The farm animals at Suson Farm in Suson Park are so adorable and endearing that we know one woman became a vegetarian after seeing them.

It only lasted for one day, but still. Those are some powerfully cute animals.

Suson Farm gives city and suburban kids who have never seen a cow or a horse or a sheep the chance to see cows and horses and sheep.

And goats and chickens and turkeys and pigs and diminutive exotic breeds such as miniature donkeys and horses, dwarf goats and the like.

While some of the animals are not to be fed, others can be. You can buy small handfuls of feed for a quarter — one is for goats and sheep, the other feeds chickens, turkey, ducks and geese.

1875 Muegge Road, St. Charles

The Wappelhorst Aquatic Facility in Wapelhorst Park has enough room for 800 people. And it is large enough, with enough things to do, for them to all have fun at the same time.

Perhaps the most striking feature are the two speed slides, five stories high, that hurtle you down at a wonderfully frightening rate of speed. But that’s just one small (but tall) part of the park.

An extensive lazy river feature allows you to enjoy a leisurely inner-tube float before, perhaps, taking on the Boomerango slide (a long, enclosed and curvy slide opens up to a quarter-pipe where you seem to defy gravity by going up a slide before coming back down).

There are also two body flume water slides, a children’s pool with one of those Rube Goldbergesque structures similar to the Monsoon Mountain at Collinsville Aqua Park and also a regular pool for, you know, regular swimming.

St. Charles residents generally pay $11.50, $10.50 for seniors and children. Nonresidents pay $16, $14 for seniors and children. Prices are lower for children 2 and under and for everyone after 4 p.m.