This is a beautiful park. One of my favorites. And you can't help but draw the comparison of O'Fallon Park to Carondelet Park as both have popular fishing lakes, extensive paved walking trails, picnic places, a wooden home, similar boathouses, nearly identical service buildings and massive modern Recreational Complexes.
The park is highly visible from I-70 so most in the region know O'Fallon Park from the rolling hills and mature trees just east and south of Bellefontaine Cemetery.
Let's start with the boathouse and lake. This is a popular fishing spot with fishermen on all sides of the lake. There is a planted island in the middle of the lake, and chess tables and currently empty planters between the lake and the boathouse.
There is a functional spray pool as well, great to see!
The walking path is extensive and extremely well used. There are spots along the track that include the commonly seen blue workout stations. Also nice to see are functional water fountains and bike racks near the trail.
One of the amazing new developments is a handicap accessible playground installed in 2014. This one precedes the one currently under construction in Willmore Park.
The playground has space themed playground equipment, and I could be wrong, but I think it even has a Mork from Ork egg:
The highlight of the playground to me were two glockenspiel/marimba like things. Check it out:
There is also a separate, accessible spray pool.
The park has tennis courts, football field (with field goals) and basketball courts as well, all in excellent condition:
There are several picnic pavilions:
There is a wood home is severe disrepair and a cool looking service building.
Much of the eastern part of the park is made up of rolling hills and mature trees.
Now the downside that has to be mentioned, because it is quite overt. There are issues with knuckleheads cruising and trashing the park along the interior roads. Broken booze/beer glass is everywhere and trash lines the streets in many spots. It's a party spot, which kills the peaceful vibe.
The copious trash from was pretty intense the first time I saw it, so I assumed a big event may have just taken place, so I made 3 separate visits to the park so as not to wrongly paint the picture of this park. Nope, it was pretty bad each time. The city workers do a great job of mowing and keeping the trash cans emptied, but they don't clean the debris from the streets and gutters.
Abuse of the park is being monitored though, as there are visible camera within the park. Based on my experience, this is the only park in the city that has cameras. Good for O'Fallon, but these are needed in many city parks.
Arguably the best thing to happen to the park in recent memory is the awesome Rec Plex complete with outdoor pool and water slides. This place is amazing.
The parking lot is green to avoid runoff.
There are entry ways from the surrounding neighborhoods that lead to the rec plex.
The homes that surround the park are straight up beautiful.
O'Fallon Park is one of the crown jewels of the St. Louis Parks.
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