The island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands is a nature lovers
playground.
St. John and the rest of what we now know as the US Virgin Islands were named by Christpoher Columbus while on his second voyage in 1493. Originally settled byw he native Ciboney, Carib, and Arawaks, the islands underwent several changes of European management until they became Danish colonies in 1754. During World War I, The US purchased the islands from Denmark, fearing that they would otherwise become a German submarine base. By the 1930s, St. John had built a reputation as "the untouched jewel" of the Carribean. Seeing this a Rockefeller boutht up most of the land on the island and built a resort at Caneel Bay. The rest of the land ,some 5000 plus acres I believe, including the most desireable north shore beaches, was then transferred to the US government for use as a national park, thus ensuring that the Caneel Bay resort would have minimal competition and the island would remain pristine.
The US Virgin Island National Park now occupies over 60% of St. John and extends well off shore to protect the coral reef communities. During his last days in office, President Clinton, seeking greater protection for coral reefs, established the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, which includes 12,708 acres (51 km²) of federal submerged lands within the 3 mile (5 km) belt off of Saint John.
We visited St. John last April, and will do so again this coming March, and perhaps we will every year! While there, we camped in the National Park at the Cinnamon Bay campground. The campground (named for the native cinnamon trees) provides sturdy, semi-permanent tents (with 4 cots each), picnic table, propane lantern, stove, dishes, linens, etc. for as little as 55.00 a night. They also have bare sites if you choose to bring your own tent and gear for much less, and rigid cabin type accomodations with electricity and ceiling fans for a bit more. Getting
to St. John requires a 5 hour flight from DC to St. Thomas (STT), followed by a 20 minute cab ride to Red Hook or Charlotte Amalie, and a 30 or 45 minute ferry ride to Cruz Bay on St. John. Figure on it taking 8 hours to get to the park from the East Coast, but with airfare for as low as 99.00 per person each way from DC, it is highly affordable. Getting around on St. John is very easy and affordable, by "taxi", but you can also rent a 4x4 jeep very easily from one of the many local
rental shop in Cruz Bay for a few days and tool around a bit yourself (can be scary... steep, windy roads)
Activities - Once you get there, pretty much involve being outside. Hiking (tallest point on the tiny island is at ~ 1800 feet - climb to the top!), searching for wild oranges / coconuts / mangoes, etc..., birding, chasing anoles and iguanas, talking to donkeys and mongoose, lounging around, checking out the archeological sites ( ruins of 17th and 18th century sugar plantations ) drinking rum, but mostly...
snorkeling. The snorkeling is superb, largely due to the protections the island has historically enjoyed. There is a guided underwater snorkeling trail at Trunk Bay, which is considered to be one of the 10 finest beaches in the world. This beach is also the busiest beach, by far. It can become quite populated with cruise ship tourists on excursions from their ships that have made port at St. Thomas. Watching them can be amusing though! Elsewhere on the island, it is not difficult to find an empty beach. Even at Cinnamon Bay near the campground, there will be very few people at the beach, and it is not uncommon to be the ONLY
person on the beach!!!
Some of the best sorkeling we saw was around Waterlemon Cay. It's here that we saw barracuds, a 5 foot shark, several stingrays, a spotted eagle ray, and a green sea turtle, and giant sea stars, all in water that was 10-40 ft. deep with a forest of different corals and thousands of different fish. It is also here that a mongoose unzipped our backpack and ate our lunch. It is also here than a donkey tried to take our pretzels, the only part of our lunch that the mongoose left us!
It was for us, a trip of pure relaxation; wake up, go snorkeling on a deserted beach, have some lunch, take a hike, go snorkeling some more, watch the stars, go to sleep. If you are turned off by the megadeveloped Carribean cruise ship destinations, I would highly suggest checking out St. John and the USVI National Park. You can spend an entire week there for only ~$1000.00 per couple, airfare included!
St. John is so wonderful, I could go one all day. For a short video clip of some activites (mostly us standing around..., drinking rum) in St. John, click HERE.
awesome.
ReplyDeleteWe are going to ST Croix with my parents in a few weeks. Do you think it would be worth taking a boat to St John's for a day to see the National Park? Are there established hiking trails or a visitor center?
How cool! When are you going? Maybe we can meet for lunch!! We'll be there 3/15 to 3/21.
ReplyDeleteThere is a visitors center in town, but it's not all that interesting. There are established hiking trails and some pretty cool ruins but the park part isn't really well defined. Its just kind of everything that isn't developed. I don't know what St. Croix is like, so I'm not sure what to recommend. It seems to take a while to get anywhere, so most of your time might be taken up by traveling. Once you get to Cruz Bay, where all the boats land, you still have to take a half hour taxi ride to get to where you can play. Plus, everyone is so laid back that no one is ever in a hurry and you might spend 20 minutes sitting in a taxi before they are ready to take you anywhere.
We only hiked one trail that was right near the campground. It was very short and only mildly interesting -- we saw the same plants and wildlife sitting at our picinic table near our tent.
It's might be worth it if you are desperate to find a good place to snorkel or hike. But, it is most likely worth it if you get there early in the morning, spend a night at the campground and leave the next day. For us it was all about the relaxing and not having plans or a time table. We went for lazy walks when we wanted...then went snorkeling...took a nap...ate lunch...
Waterlemon Cay, where the excellent snorkelingis, is probably an hour from Cruz Bay and once you get to the parking lot you still have to hike a mile or so to the snorkeling spot.
I hope this is helpful. Bill might be able to recommend a good map or website. There is one hiking trail everyone knows about that has some weird hyroglyphics on it. We didn't go on it, but I heard from a co-worker that it wasn't all that impressive. There are apprently porta-potties along the trail.
I agree with JoAnna - the visitor's center is sparse. They do have a few cool exhibits and information, and pamphlets/map of course, but beyond that there isn't much. We were in there for 20 minutes and digested everything, that probably also included a potty break and water re-fill.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest limiting factor for a day trip would definetely be time and accessibility. I don't know if there is A St. Croix - St. John ferry. I think it might involve St. Thomas in the middle. Once you get there, it is easy to take a taxi to any place, but if your destination is not on the north shore, finding a taxi to get back to Cruz Bay may take a bit of patience.
There are a ton of trails though all over the place. There is a trail to the top of Bordeaux Mountain (highest point). There is also the trail JoAnna was talking about that bisects the Island and passes ancient heiroglyphs, salt marshes, and such. The NPS hosts guided walks down that trail, which is all downhill to the southern coast. I think the hike is 3-4 hours. From there, the guided groups are put on a boat and taken back to Cruz Bay, for like 20.00 a person. Think it's called the Reef Bay trail
Another idea might be the ruins of the Annaberg Sugar Plantation. probably 45 minutes by taxi from Cruz Bay. There's a trail there that runs through the ruins, etc. and there is also a trail that continues east, along the beach. About a mile down that trail is Waterlemon Cay - for the exccellent snorkeling... but the trail continues beyond to points unknown to me. There is a fee to check out the ruins, but not to use the trail to Waterlemon.
Also, like JoAnna said, there's a 1 mile interpretive nature loop and some other ruins at Cinnamon Bay that can be explored in about an hour.
National Geographic makes a very nice plasticy tear-and-humidity resistant map of the island that shows most of the trails within the park. Campmor has it for 10 bucks.
Have fun!
http://www.nps.gov/viis/VIIS/index.html
Thanks for the info!
ReplyDeleteI am glad you guys had such a good time that you are going back again. My parents went to St croix last year and really liked it. We will be there feb. 15-22nd. We are going to try to check out Buck Island National Reef which is supposed to be good for SCUBA/snorkeling.