Castlewood State Park

What an absolutely gorgeous place to hike, run, or walk your dog. There’s flat asphalt if you’re not into hills, or multiple trails with gorgeous views to avail yourself of. Dogs are permitted on leash (please pick up after them), there are restrooms at the parking lots, although not all of them are open in the winter, and watch out of the lack of trashcans. An excellent choice if you’re looking to get a bit of fresh air and time in green space in your busy life.

If you’re into hiking, Castlewood State Park is probably your best option (within 1hr radius of St. Louis). I’ve visited Castlewood on multiple occasions to hiking with friends and have always enjoyed it!
There’s several different trail options, most of them are moderate difficultly and provide beautiful views of MO/​Ozark terrain. The trail I most frequently is the Riverscene Trail because it’s a decent hike that goes up and down the cliff side of the Missouri River. There’s even a tunnel on the trail!

it’s hard to find a nice place for a decent hike around the stl area so I must say that castlewood is the best place. it’s a nice leisure walk with some stairs that must be conquered. there’s a beautiful view from the higher trails. also, the best time to go hiking is during the fall because you will set your eyes on miles of fall foliage!

Finally! A challenging place to hike! Everywhere I’ve been has been mostly flat. I’ve lived here for two years and just discovered this place (Maybe I need to explore more!). I’m not an expert hiker by any means, there were a few times I had to stop and say «holy cow! Another incline? Where is the top!!!» There are a few benches along the way so if you do get winded you can take a break. It was totally worth it. Amazing views. This place passed my expectations by leaps and bounds and best of all it is free!

This is our go-​to place for hiking! We like all the up-​hill action first, take the steps down and then cool off with the flat trail through the field and along the river. You get a some shade, some sun and some pretty look-​outs. When we went this past weekend, there were lots of families — most of them enjoying the water! On the busy days, it can be hard to find a parking spot!

Nice park for nature but my kids didn’t care for it because there was only one playground that we saw and nobody else was there

After spending last summer hiking in the state of Washington, I’ve been looking for places to hike in St. Louis. I was happy to find Castlewood State Park as an option for hiking. There are about 6 trails to choose from when you hike. We chose to do the Lone Wolf Trail. I was surprised to find it so easily. Online it states that the trail is about .3 miles from the office, which was pretty accurate. One additional hint might be that the trail starts directly across from a small parking lot next to a gate that is usually open to the public.
According to the website, they classify this trail as «rugged.» While the beginning (and some parts of the trail) are quite steep, most of this trail is pretty flat (and there’s also the easy part where you walk down several flights of stairs). I probably shouldn’t have expected much given that we’re still in the midwest. The website states that this trail takes about 1.5 hours, but we easily did it in 60 minutes. In addition to the hiking trail, we saw a nice biking trail along this route as well. Despite the fact that the trail wasn’t as steep as I would have preferred, it was very scenic. There are several scenic overlooks on the trail. It also has great views of the river. We came during the spring, which was very pretty. With that said, I can only imagine how beautiful this place is during the fall.
In sum, a beautiful place to go hiking, although I wish the trails were a little more difficult.

How did it take me so long to get out to Castlewood?
Honestly, I know how. I don’t like going into St. Louis County. i’m a city person. The county is full of fake chain restaurants and shopping centers, there’s something much more «local» about the city to me.
HOWEVER… i do love being outside, and hiking options are limited in the city. So a friend and i packed a lunch and drove the 30 minutes out to Castlewood for lunch and a hike.
It was the first nice day of the season. so of course it was packed. We expected that. We struggled to find a parking spot, but luckily caught someone pulling out. We sat down at a picnic table by a little creek. possibly Kiefer Creek? And we ate our lunch before heading up on our hike.
The first leg of the hike is pretty intimidating, but it does calm down once you get to the top. And the top is beautiful! Overlooking the Meramec river, there are several spots to sit and look out when you need a rest. The remainder of the hike is beautifully woven through the woods, and there is even a fork where you can decide to take a longer extension of the hike or just continue with the short version. We opted for the longer hike. it was perfect.
Besides the hiking, the park also has fields for throwing/​kicking a ball around, and several spots with grills and picnic tables if you wanted to make a full day of it. I look forward to going back.

Castlewood is a gorgeous park to head to for outdoor fun. There are lots of picnic areas and a few playgrounds. I don’t really go there for that though. The real gem… the hiking trails! The bike trails are tied into the hiking trails, so you have to be careful when you are on the paths because the bikers ride fast because the trails are so worn in and great. The Lone Elk hike is right at 3 miles and my favorite.
My husband and I got engaged at the park on one of the lookouts. Love this place!

I like Castlewood because it’s has some great trails — for both hikers and bikers — and a very natural/​native feel that makes you feel like you are truly escaping from the city.
It’s cool because there are trails for all types — families, dogs, serious hikers, foragers, pot-​heads who like to smoke in the woods, Instagrammers who wanna use the hashtag #omgtrees, and of course, those hoosiers that like to put their lawn chairs in the water.

This is easily one of the best parks in St. Louis.
It has a beautiful hiking trail that is awesome to trek on with a friend (four legged or two). There is plenty of parking and, from what I can tell, it’s never too crowded. They also have a huge open filed you can play in if hiking ain’t your thing. Regardless if you like to hike, you need to. It has a gorgeous view that overlooks a huge area of Missouri. You would never guess there is a sight so beautiful so close to home.
I’ve also used Castelwood’s bike trail which is quite fun but can get pretty muddy/​thick. Bring plenty of bug spray for all those mosquitoes and prepare to get drenched in mud if it rained recently.
I can’t wait to head out here for the first time this summer. Who wants to go on a hike?!

So gorgeous, especially at this very moment, with the Fall colors and crap.
I feel like a bad St. Louisan for not making it here until this past weekend. My neighbor had been urging me to take a hike for months. I’m so glad I did. The trails are easily marked, I did the Lone Wolf (just like me, I’m a rebel, Dotty) Trail, after a steep climb you’re rewarded by a nice hike along the bluffs.
Can’t wait to break my ass on my mountain bike here.

This review is for the «Castlewood loop» and «Chubb trail» only. I came on a sunny weekday AM in july with my dog a day after it rained a lot. I did not bring insect repellent.
As soon as you descend on Chubb trail adjacent to the railroad Mosquitos completely swarm you from head to toe. It was as if they were all expecting my dog and I and they were starving! I was wearing a short sleeved T-​shirt and I had to run to keep from being bitten (this helped but they would still latch on). By the end of the hike both my arms were streaked in blood from slapping Mosquitos (not because I slapped my arms so hard, but because the Mosquitos were so engorged at the end of their blood meal that they exploded in blood as if a mini grenade went off inside them to light touch). It seriously was comparable to the swampland in the Everglades park in South Florida during the summer.
Unfortunately my experience went from bad to worse. We made it to the «Castlewood loop» trail once you cross the railroad tracks. The trails were completely unmaintained and consisted of either muddy pools of water or overgrown weeds in the open field areas. When we finally reached the south meremec river portion of the trail it was very scenic and I thought ahhh all that mudding, mosquito warfare, and bush whacking was worth it for the view…
That was until I looked down at both my legs and they were covered by currant sized lone star and dog ticks! There were al least 15 of them, some were latched others were crawling around until they found a good place to gouge their barbed mouth pieces and pump themselves fat.
I quickly picked them off and continued the second half of the trail that continued to rotate between muddy sand/​dirt and giant pools of muddy water. The trail got so bad towards the end I ended up taking a shortcut on the railroad track and made my way back to the beginning of Chubb trail.
I will avoid this part of the park unless it is either very dry out and or trails were freshly maintained. I will try the north aspect of the park next time as this is where all the positive reviews have come from.
Seriously if blood banks are in need of more donations they need to ditch the buses and come to this section of the park, trap the mosquitos, and tap them with small needles. They would have more than enough supply to last decades.
Other than most likely contracting West Nile Virus, Ehlichiosis, Lyme disease, and losing two pints of blood we had an A-​ok time

Beautiful park. Extremely crowded.