How to be a Geography Nerd in Missouri

You may or may not know that my son and I are self-professed geography nerds. If I am in a new state near another state, I feel a need to find the state line and cross it, and if there is something cool to do on the other side, that’s the icing on the cake. So on a recent trip to Missouri, of course I looked for those places where crossing into another state was reasonably easy to do.

We flew into St. Louis, which is a pretty cool place on its own. But it also just so happens to sit right across the Mississippi River from Illinois. It takes about 10 minutes or so to drive across a bridge into East St. Louis, IL, and find a fascinating spot to visit – Monk’s Mound.

Monk’s Mound is the largest mound at the Cahokia site, and in fact is the largest prehistoric earthwork in the Americas. Cahokia is considered the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico and includes many human-made mounds that can be seen from the highway. Monk’s Mound is over 14 acres and 100 feet high.

The name comes from a group of Trappist Monks who lived on one of the nearby mounds. It was built in stages between 950 and 1200AD. There are signs and maps along the path that goes to the slope and up the stairs. Visitors are advised not to climb up the sides of the mound. It’s a short but steep climb up the stairs to the top. On the day we visited, it was quite a bit windier up there, and we could easily see the skyline of St. Louis, including the Arch.

Unfortunately, Cahokia Mounds Interpretive Center is closed, probably throughout most of 2024, for renovations. But, once it reopens it will again include museum exhibit galleries, an orientation show theater, a public programming auditorium, museum shop, a snack-food service, public restrooms, staff offices, and a courtyard for educational programs. Currently, the only restrooms are port-o-johns located in the parking lot beside Monk’s Mound.

Since the only thing to do was read the signs and climb the mound, we spent about a half hour in Illinois, and the rest of our day in St. Louis. Probably the two main attractions for us were the Arch, and City Museum.

The Arch can be seen from various areas in the city, and certainly quite well on the drive into Illinois. This iconic “Gateway to the West” is a national park, and includes a free museum. There are also tram rides you can take to the top for about $15-19 per person, typically with a short wait. Parking in the area was limited due to a Cardinals game, but there are several nearby parking garages where you can park on non-game days for $15 with a little planning. 

Because we had been flying and wanted to be able to move our bodies a bit more, we opted to visit City Museum. City Museum in downtown St. Louis is about a mile from the arch. It is made with all sorts of repurposed materials and it is pretty incredible. There are a few scam parking lots around, so you should be sure to park in the one in back of the museum that has the serpent wrapped around the fence, or the one directly across from it, for $15.

There are four levels to City Museum, and tickets are around $20/person. You can pay extra to access the roof top, where there is a giant praying mantis, a Ferris wheel, and a bus hanging over the edge. But there is a ton to do even without that extra level.

There is an aquarium, many indoor jungle gyms, and I would even consider it an art museum in a way, because everywhere you turn is an interesting and intricate creation. Some of the climbing structures have super narrow passages and it’s not always clear where they will emerge (sometimes they even come out on a different floor), so it’s a good idea to have a meeting place or make sure your children are telling you before climbing on anything new. The staff also requires everyone to wear a bracelet and writes your phone number on it in case of separation, which is a good idea.

The outside was the only part that sort of scared me, and this was because my four year old got her leg stuck between the iron bars that made up one of the climbing structures. It was stuck pretty well, and we were very high up. But after a staff person helped unstick the leg, she settled down and we went on our merry way, playing elsewhere while her older siblings thoroughly enjoyed the crazy, high structures along the outside of the building. I would highly recommend this museum for school age children, more so than toddlers or preschoolers (though, to be fair, the youngest still had a blast despite the leg incident).

After our day in St. Louis, we headed down to Branson, Missouri for the remainder of our vacation (about 4 hours southwest), and got our geography nerd back on at Dogwood Canyon.

Dogwood Canyon is a privately owned natural area about 45 minutes southwest of Branson, MO. It has a small lodge/museum with some artifacts and information about native people and animals of the area, along with a restaurant where you can eat locally sourced food.

There is a stream that runs through the canyon, and 11 waterfalls that fall at various points from the top of the canyon, creating a very picturesque setting in which to walk, bike, or take a tram ride. You do have to pay an entrance fee which is around $20/person, which gives you access to the trails and the tree house, built by the Tree House Masters before they became famous.

Another option is to take the tram ride, which is $40/person but takes you to a section of the canyon where there is wildlife including bison and elk. My recommendation is to rent bikes for $16, along with the little wagons you can pull behind you for your littles to ride in, and bike the full 3.1 miles of beautiful trail which will take you to Arkansas! And there’s your delightful, border crossing, geography nerd moment. Yes, a part of Dogwood Canyon is in Arkansas. It is the part with the wildlife, and while the only way to access the portion of the trail with the wildlife is on a tram ride, you can access the state line via hiking or biking. And that concludes my post on how to be a geography nerd in Missouri.