Don Robinson State Park

About this park

Don Robinson State Park occupies a quiet, shady sanctuary within the upper watershed of LaBarque Creek that feels genuinely remote despite sitting just minutes from the bustling St. Louis metropolitan area. Wooded hillsides buffer the park from any outside noise, while unusual sandstone box canyons, shelter caves, cliffs, and glades create a landscape that makes it easy to forget a major city lies just beyond the park's wooded boundary. The park exists entirely because of one man's personal vision: Don Robinson purchased this property as his own private home and sanctuary, and it was specifically his wish that upon his death, this land become part of the Missouri state park system, a bequest that transformed a private retreat into public parkland in 2012. That origin story gives the park a genuinely personal character, shaped by decades of one owner's careful stewardship before it ever opened to the public. A mix of upland and bottomland forest surrounds the park's signature sandstone formations, and hiking trails let visitors explore the same box canyons and shelter caves that drew Robinson to this land in the first place. Picnic areas and special-use camping give visitors a way to extend their stay, but the park's core appeal remains its unusual geology and genuine sense of seclusion, a rare combination this close to a major metropolitan area.