Riverfront

Sign--complete with "tag". 

Last night a cold front moved through the area, bringing a lot of rain.  When it left it took the hot, humid weather with it.  Today was a great day to be outside--sunny, with temperatures in the mid-70s.  After we ran our errands, Hubby Tony and I tried a new-to-us walking route, the St. Louis Riverfront Trail.

The southernmost trailhead, where we parked, wasn't too far from the Gateway Arch. From there, the trail followed the Mississippi River to the north. The portion we walked on hugged the flood wall, except for a detour around the construction area where they're building a new bridge across the river to Illinois.  Then we were on the other side of the flood wall, and the trail seemed to be in various states of repair/disrepair.

I was expecting nice river views, but instead the section we walked was more of a “working riverfront” of industrial and shipping facilities, interspersed with green strips along the river bank.  On the other side of the trail, we passed a scrap metal processing plant, grain elevators, and a water treatment facility.  Definitely urban.  However, it was quite a pleasant way to spend part of a day; the company was good and the trail wasn't crowded (we saw several people on bikes, but only one other walker).

The complete trail  is almost 12 miles.  We covered a little over two miles, then turned around. When we got to the parking lot we kept going for several more blocks, to Laclede's Landing, because it was lunchtime and I had a gift certificate to one of the restaurants there.