Places to Go, Things to Do

Lots of outdoor fun events ready in June

There are lots of outdoor fun activities available for kids and families during June in the St. Louis metro area. Why not sign-up for your favorites today.

Outdoor skills training ranges from fishing to hunting to orienteering. There are lots of neat bike rides in the St. Louis area.

But, if you like indoor activities, the St. Louis Art Museum has a series of Sunday family programs. If you’re a spectator, the “Battle by the Arch” tournament offers some great girls’ basketball.

Missouri Conservation Department

The Missouri Conservation Department’s various areas have a number of “themed” weeks scheduled in June.

The “themed” weeks allow you to take lessons in related subjects in the same week. For instance, the Outdoor Skills Week at Busch Conservation Area in St. Charles County has three subjects during the week of June 21-25.

There are programs on fishing, beginning orienteering and archery in the same week.

Other “themed” weeks at Busch in June are Aquatics Week and Lewis & Clark Week.

The new Columbia Bottom Conservation Area will have an Aquatics Week as well as a Finding Your Way Week and ‘ology Week. The “Finding” classes include beginning compass, beginning map reading and beginning orienteering.

‘ology Week includes Entomology (insects), Ichthyology (fish) and Mammology (mammals).

Rockwoods Reservation has an ‘ology Week, Predators of the Wild Week, Survival Games Week and Outdoor Skills Week.

At the Powder Valley Nature Center, there will be Maze Days, Lewis & Clark and Kids’ Outdoor Skills weeks.

For details on these and other fun programs, visit www.mdc.mo.gov/areas

St. Louis County Parks

One of the highlights of summer activity in St. Louis County Parks are the week-long Youth Fishing Day Camps. These provide lots of fishing instruction by county park rangers.

One camp is Monday-Friday, June 7-11, at Queeny Park in west county. The other is the next week, June 14-18, at Suson Park in south county. The days are from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Cost is $130 per person. Advance registration is required.

This is especially designed for kids 9 to 14. Kids go to a different fishing location every day. Also, every afternoon, there’s swimming at a county pool. And each camp ends with a Friday pizza party.

For other county park offerings in June, check www.stlouisco.com/parks.

Trailnet’s Kids Fun Rides

The first Kids’ Fun Ride for June is the Route 66 Bicycle Ride & Festival. It will start at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 5, from Edwardsville, Ill.

Riders can pick from routes ranging in distance from 16 to 66 miles. All of them return to Edwardsville, where the Route 66 festival will be in full swing.

One main feature of Kids’ Fun Rides is that routes don’t have steep hills. And most of them end up at a festival or a good place to eat.

Although it’s not listed as a Kids’ Fun Ride, another June bike event you and your family might like to try is the Bridge Birthday Bash and Bicycle Ride. That one is on Sunday, June 26, starting at 9 a.m.

The ride starts at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis. It is in celebration of the 75th birthday of the bridge. Bikers can follow relatively flat routes of 14, 27 or 32 miles.

For the full lineup of Trailnet rides, check out www.trailnet.org.

St. Louis Art Museum

The St. Louis Art Museum features family programming every Sunday. There are also Ford Free Friday programs.

For details on the St. Louis Art Museum’s programming, visit www.slam.org.

Gifted Resource Council

The Gifted Resource Council’s Summer Academies 2004 provile a lot of chances for kids to explore neat subjects.

The June academies include such subjects as the Ancient Academy: Ancient Egypt, the Space and Advanced Space Academies and Academy Americana. The latter one is an exploration of the 1904 World’s Fair which was held in St. Louis.

The academies involve fees but a limited number of scholarships are available.

For information, call (314) 962-5920. Or you can visit www.cybam.com/grc

“Battle by the Arch” basketball

In June, the St. Louis Comets host one of the best girls basketball tournaments in the country. Dozens of teams from across the country will take part in the June 18-20 meet.

The games are played at a variety of arenas and all are open to the public.

YSL.com featured an article about the St. Louis Comets in May, 2004.

For details on the “Battle by the Arch” tournament, visit www.eteamz.com/aauozark