Gateway Arch: 2 Days at the Arch, Old Courthouse and Riverfront

Start where the photos are taken from and then ignore the camera for a minute. Walk up to the base of the Arch and look straight up the stainless-steel curve, where 630 feet of steel narrows into a sliver against the sky. You can even lie on the lawn beneath it. Morning is the calmest time on the grounds, before the tram lines start to form. The grounds are open daily from early morning until late evening, so this stop needs no ticket.

Drop east from the Arch onto the Grand Staircase and gentle ramps that lead to the Mississippi. The riverfront was once the bustling heart of the city and is still one of the best places to watch river traffic. Look for the brass Flood of 1993 marker on the staircase, which shows how high the water once climbed. Then climb back up (5-20 minutes is suggested, depending how hard you want to push it) and walk to the Visitor Center's west entrance, facing Fourth Street, to clear security before your tram time.

Cross Fourth Street to the Old Courthouse lawn and pause at the statue of Dred and Harriet Scott, placed in honor of their fight for their family's freedom. It sets up the next stop, because the Scotts' suit was heard inside the building behind it. The Arch is framed in the background from here.

Walk north along the paved paths to the Explorer Garden, planted mostly with native species to support pollinators; it is designed to bloom from February to October and sits where a concrete parking garage once stood. It is the park's quiet corner, with flat rocks for resting and a drinking fountain. Plants here include some that Native peoples used and Lewis and Clark described in their journals. On the way you pass the Catenary Curve Wayside, which explains the curve of the Arch with a tactile model.

Just north of the garden, the Eads Bridge is a stop for the engineering-minded. It is an architectural wonder with a fascinating history: the first bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis, built in 1874, and the oldest bridge still standing on the river. Admire the arched steel spans from the riverfront, then head to the hotel for a rest.

End the day with a slow loop by the ponds north and south of the Arch. Visitors are invited to use all five senses here. Grounds stay open until 11 PM, so you can watch the light fade on the steel with no ticket. Sunset falls at a different time each month, so check the time for your dates.

Begin on the north riverfront with the 22-foot bronze of William Clark, Meriwether Lewis and Lewis's dog Seaman. It was installed in 2006 for the bicentennial of the expedition's return, then moved higher on the riverfront in 2016 to protect it from flooding.

Visitors are pointed to the historic riverfront trail for easy movement along the Mississippi. It is a flat, paved outing rather than a hike, good for watching barges and getting a different angle on the Arch. The grounds have about five miles of paved trails in all. Distance for this stretch is not published, so it is treated as a walk of your own length.