Katy Trail to Forest Park and Downtown St Louis

Many cycling tourists incorporate the Katy Trail into longer tours, and often want to know how they can continue from the eastern end of the trail to downtown St Louis. It's just a little over 20 miles from the Katy Trail to downtown, and well worth the trip if you don't mind street riding.

We highly recommend crossing the Missouri River at the Page/364 bridge, which has a bike lane that's separated from automotive traffic by a concrete wall. This crossing is at mile 42.8, just three miles from trail's end (if you want to visit historic St Charles, you can easily backtrack to this bridge).

Here is Google's recommended bike route for getting from the Katy Trail to Forest Park. We highly recommend going through Forest Park on your way downtown, because

it's on the way to downtown
it's full of museums, the zoo, and other attractions
it has great bike paths - try the 6 mile loop around the perimeter of the park

From Forest Park, my favorite route downtown is West Pine. Here's a good route from Forest Park to the Arch. It cuts through the campus of St Louis University. Traffic shouldn't be an issue until you get past about 20th Street. If you make your own route, it's safest to stay south of Delmar.

Bike shops:
To reach Big Shark Bike Shop, head north on Skinker from the northeat corner of Forest Park. Take Skinker for less than a mile past Forest Park to Delmar, then right (north) on Delmar for about a block to 6133 Delmar. Big Shark is also easy to reach from the Metrolink light rail Delmar Loop station.
To reach Trailhead Mesa Cycles, go south on Big Bend, to 1035 S Big Bend.

Useful/Related Resources

St Louis Metrolink light rail, which allows roll-on bikes
How to get by bike from the Kirkwood Amtrak station to the Katy Trail
How to get from the St Louis Airport to the Katy Trail