Laumeier Sculpture Park: An Unexpected Stop on Our St. Louis EV Road Trip
Colorful, playful and hard to pass without taking a closer look, Ricardo Cat was one of the first sculptures to catch our attention.
Sometimes a road-trip stop begins with nothing more than a sign you weren't expecting to see.
Cheryl and I were driving into St. Louis on Interstate 44, watching the familiar mix of exits, overpasses and businesses pass by. Just after crossing I-270, a sign off to the right caught my eye:
Sculpture Park.
That was enough to make me wonder.
We already had somewhere to be and plans for the evening, so stopping wasn't an option. We continued into St. Louis, but I tucked the idea away for later.
By late the next afternoon, we had a little time on our hands, and I was still thinking about that sign.
So, we went back to see what Laumeier Sculpture Park was all about.
We didn't know what we would find or how long we would stay. A couple of hours later, we were still wandering the paths.
Sometimes curiosity makes a pretty good travel planner.
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A Late Afternoon Among the Sculptures
Getting to Laumeier Sculpture Park from Lindburgh Boulevard to Rott Road was easy. After parking, we stopped briefly at the Aronson Fine Arts Center and then headed outside to explore the grounds.
One of the first to catch our attention was Ricardo Cat, by Niki de Saint Phalle. The oversized cat is covered in a colorful mosaic of ceramic tile, stained glass, mirrors and stone. It's playful, a little unusual and hard to walk past without stopping for a closer look.
From there, Cheryl and I continued along the paths, taking our time and seeing where they led us.
That's when we came across Eye, by Tony Tasset.
A giant blue eye staring back at you from the landscape is pretty hard to miss. It's strange, unexpected and just a little surreal. We stopped, walked around it and took another look before moving on. Eye is a 2007 sculpture by Tasset.
It's hard to walk past a giant blue eye without stopping. Tony Tasset's Eye was easily one of the most memorable sculptures from our afternoon.
Later, as we crossed one of the open areas, another of Tasset's works came into view: Deer.
Seeing a deer in Missouri isn't unusual. Seeing one towering over you is another matter.
There's something fun about encountering such a familiar animal at a completely unfamiliar size. From a distance, you know exactly what you're looking at. Get a little closer, and suddenly it doesn't seem so ordinary. Deer is a 2015 work by Tasset.
We also came across Gox No. 3, by Ernest Trova. Compared with Ricardo Cat, Eye and Deer, the stainless-steel abstract sculpture was something completely different. Created in 1974, it's part of Trova's Gox series.
We would walk for a while, talk, and then something else would appear ahead of us. Some sculptures made us curious, others made us smile, and a few had us looking from a couple of different angles before continuing down the paved walkway.
Eventually, we made our way toward the Emerson Children's Sculpture Garden before heading back to our electric steed. By then, what started as a casual walk had turned into nearly two hours of exploring.
For a place that hadn't been on our itinerary the day before, Laumeier had done a pretty good job of holding our attention.
Amp’d Advice: Are you a planner and not a seat of your pants person?
Download the park map before you arrive (here).
How Did All of This Get Here?
It wasn't until later that I learned Ernest Trova's connection to Laumeier went well beyond Gox No. 3.
The story goes back to 1968, when Matilda Laumeier gave the first 72 acres to St. Louis County in memory of her husband, Henry. In 1976, St. Louis artist Ernest Trova donated 40 works of art, helping bring the sculpture park to life. Laumeier opened that same year.
Knowing that made our encounter with Gox No. 3 a little more interesting. We hadn't realized it until after we stood there, but Trova and his work were an important part of how this unusual place got its start.
That's about all the history we needed. We had come to Laumeier simply to see where that sign along I-44 would lead us.
Amp’d Advice: Bugs like you (alot) and the Sun can make you red, thus Sun and Bug Protection are Essential
Always carry the basics when heading out for an adventure, even an adventure in a city park
Bring sunscreen and insect repellent. Missouri's ticks are persistent, and avoiding bites is much easier than dealing with the consequences later.
A Charge and a Stop at Wally's
Of course, wandering around a sculpture park for a couple of hours still left us with the matter of charging the car.
Fortunately, that was easy too.
Nearby in Fenton, we found IONNA fast charging at Wally's. We plugged in and headed inside. IONNA's Rechargery at Wally's offers both CCS and NACS fast charging with speeds up to 400 kW.
If you've ever been to Buc-ee's, you get the idea. Wally's has that same almost overwhelming travel-stop experience, with plenty of food, drinks, snacks and things you didn't know you needed until you walked through the door.
We wandered around for a while, the car charged, and before long we were ready to get back on the road.
That's about as complicated as I want an EV charging stop to be.
Seeing a deer in Missouri isn't unusual, but Tony Tasset's oversized Deer certainly made us stop for another look.
Every EV trip starts with PlugShare to research destinations and charging options
Our mantra is simple: we design our route - because adventure shouldn’t be outsourced to a GPS.
Once we pick a destination, I dive into PlugShare for charger intel while Cheryl brings the magic by charting each stop on our paper atlas, giving us a colorful, big‑picture snapshot of the journey.
That blend of EV tech and old‑school wanderlust keeps our planning smooth, colorful, and unmistakably SightSee EV. Check out the full article to see how this combo keeps our road trips smooth and fun!
Birds Eye Review: An Unexpected EV Adventure
Gox No. 3 brought something completely different to our walk, standing out with its abstract stainless-steel design.
I'll admit that an art museum isn't always the first place I look for when Cheryl and I have a couple of free hours on a road trip. An outdoor sculpture park, however, is different.
At Laumeier, we took our time, talked and stopped whenever something caught our attention. For us, it was Eye, Deer, Ricardo Cat and Gox No. 3. Someone else could follow those same paths and come away with an entirely different list.
And that's really all you need to do here. You don't have to know a lot about art. Take your time and see what catches your eye.
Laumeier was also easy to work into our EV road trip through St. Louis. After a couple of hours at the park, we made the short drive to Wally's in Fenton, plugged into the IONNA chargers and looked around inside while the car charged. Before long, we were ready to get back on the road.
The funny thing is, none of this was planned. The day before, Laumeier was just a sign I happened to notice along I-44. By the next afternoon, Cheryl and I had spent a couple of hours among giant sculptures, talking about our favorites and wondering where the time had gone.
I'm glad that sign caught my attention, and even more glad we decided to go back.
That unexpected afternoon with Cheryl, followed by an easy charging stop, became another memory from our travels along The Great American Electric Highway.
John's mission is to help readers see that electric vehicles are simply cars powered by a different energy source, capable of taking us anywhere we want to go.
His favorite way to share that message? Road-tripping along the Great American Electric Highway, where every mile offers an opportunity to visit family, reconnect with friends, and discover America's scenic beauty.
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