Walk St. Louis from the Arch to Forest Park
St. Louis rewards the walker in neighbourhoods rather than in one big centre. FOG keeps everything dark until you walk it, so each district you take on becomes its own bright island on the map.
Riverfront to the park
Downtown faces the Mississippi, and the Gateway Arch, 630 feet of stainless steel, stands in a park on the riverfront. Behind it is the downtown grid with Washington Avenue and its loft buildings. West along the Market Street axis are the Old Courthouse, Union Station and the long corridor toward Midtown and Grand Center.
Forest Park, further west, is bigger than Central Park and holds the zoo, the art museum and the history museum. Around it are the Central West End, with its private streets and grand houses, and the Delmar Loop to the north west.
Neighbourhoods worth a day each
Soulard, south of downtown, is brick townhouses around a farmers market that has run for generations. Lafayette Square has Victorian painted ladies around a square park. The Hill, the Italian neighbourhood, has fire hydrants painted in the colours of the Italian flag and some of the best bakeries in the city.
A good long walk: the Arch grounds and riverfront, then west through downtown to Union Station, and on through Midtown to the Central West End and a loop of Forest Park. It is a long, straight bright line, with a broad patch at each end.
Practical notes
St. Louis is mostly flat to gently rolling and the grid is regular, which makes for clean coverage. Summers are hot and humid and winters can be cold, so spring and autumn are the best seasons for long walks.
Like most American cities the metro area spreads far into the counties. Expect the city percentage to build slowly beyond the central corridor, and to count each neighbourhood you finish as its own small win.
Bring the walks you already did
An empty map is a slow start in a city you already know. FOG Unlimited imports Google Timeline exports and GPX files, so years of past walks in St. Louis clear straight onto the map, and you open the app to a real picture with obvious dark gaps in it. It is one purchase, never a subscription.
From then on FOG records by itself, with the app closed, and the trail never leaves the phone. No account, no ads, no tracking. The logbook writes a page for every month and year you were out, with the new ground and the new places you set foot in.
Questions people actually ask
How tall is the Gateway Arch?
It stands 630 feet tall, on the riverfront downtown.
Is Forest Park worth walking?
Yes. It is larger than Central Park and its loop paths connect the museums, the zoo and the lakes.
Does FOG work for running and cycling too?
Yes. It clears fog for walking, running and riding, anywhere on Earth, in the same way.
Start with a dark map.
FOG is free to explore. No account, no subscription, and your map never leaves your phone.
free to explore · one purchase unlocks everything · never a subscription