Wilderness Wandering

Trains, ferries and taxis

Friday, January 3, 2025

Happy New Year!

We started off 2025 with a visit to Virgin Islands National Park. This was our 50th park!

We flew out of Milwaukee very early in the morning. We changed planes at O’Hare and then flew direct to St. Thomas. It was an almost 5 hour flight from Chicago. We deplaned on the tarmac in St. Thomas and walked into the airport and were greeted by Island people dancing, joyful Caribbean music, free samples of local coconut rum and 80 degrees! My friend Amy picked us up and chauffeured us to her house where we enjoyed the gorgeous view of Magens Bay. 

This was my 6th time visiting Amy on St. Thomas, but Tim’s first time. He truly appreciated the endless days of 80 degrees and sunshine. 

Saturday, January 4, 2025

We had a leisurely morning and headed back to Magens Bay to hike and swim. We hiked the 2.5 mile Magens Bay trail.  It is a relatively steep climb through a tropical forest with a wonderful view of the bay about 2/3 of the way up. The trail continues to a road at the top, which is a bit anticlimactic.  After the hike, we cooled down with a refreshing swim.  We went to one of my favorite St. Thomas restaurants for dinner, Sunset Grille at Secret Harbor. Tim enjoyed his first Painkiller. The Painkiller is a delicious drink that is a twist on the piña colada and is dusted with nutmeg. It features fruit juice, Caribbean rum and coconut cream. We had amazing locally caught ahi tuna steak for our meal and soaked in the sunset from our beachside table. What a treat to bask in the warm ocean breeze while our family and friends back in the Midwest endured single digit temperatures. 

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Arriving at the National Park- two thirds of the Island of St. John (14,737 acres) is National Park and 40% of the park is underwater. The park is filled with beautiful beaches as well as Island history. One can see historic plantation ruins, sugar cane factory ruins and wonderful petroglyphs. 

We boarded the passenger ferry from St. Thomas’s Red Hook dock to Cruz Bay on St. John. Passenger ferries are $12 per person round trip and vehicle ferries are about $65 one way. The passenger ferry rate for resident senior citizens is a great deal, only $1.50!  We had arranged to use a friend’s vehicle but that fell through. Rental cars are very expensive and parking is extremely limited on St. John, so we decided to wing it and use the taxi system instead. We walked from the ferry dock at Cruz Bay to the National Park VC. It is about 1/4 mile.  The VC is closed on Sunday, but we were able to take our photo and get our passport stamped. Everything is very expensive on the islands because everything has to be shipped in. We decided we would eat peanut butter sandwiches for many of our meals here because it travels well and doesn’t need refrigeration. We ate our peanut butter sandwich lunch at a picnic table. 

The Lind Point Trail starts from the VC parking lot.  We took the steeper Lind Point Trail High Route to a viewpoint and then on to Salomon Beach. It is a 2 mile out and back trail that starts and ends relatively steep and rocky and is flat in the middle. Salomon Beach is secluded and only accessible by foot and water. We enjoyed a swim there.

We hiked back into Cruz Bay via the lower Lind Point Trail and hailed a taxi. Most of the taxis are 1 ton trucks with multi row open air seating. There is set pricing posted from beach to beach. Our destination was Cinnamon Bay Beach and as we drove along we passed other beaches. As I mentioned earlier, parking on island is very limited. We were delayed a while as several tow trucks were yanking cars that were parked inappropriately. What a way to spoil a beautiful day at the beach. 

We arrived at Cinnamon Bay and checked in for our eco-tent experience. We were thrilled to find we had the closest tent to the beach! The eco-tents are large canvas tents with mesh sides and flaps that can be zipped up. Inside the tent, we had a comfy queen size bed with drawers underneath, two bookcases, a combo ceiling fan and light, and a cooler. Out the front was a deck with Adirondack chairs and a picnic table. There was a propane stove for cooking. The bathrooms were nearby. They were very new, and very clean and they had showers that were open to the sky. 

It was extremely windy and the waves at Cinnamon Beach were huge. They had a red flag that cautioned about being careful while swimming.  We walked back to the restaurant area and had a delicious Painkiller at the bar.

We fell asleep lulled by the loud crashing surf.

Monday, January 6, 2025

We awoke to deer walking around our campsite. I walked the few feet to the beach and enjoyed the sunrise and a walk on the sand.  

Just outside the Cinnamon Bay resort is a 1/2 mile loop walk of the Cinnamon Bay Sugar Factory ruins. It was fascinating to walk amongst the beautiful stone ruins. There were also many interesting native trees, like the Bay tree that was used to produce Bay Rum men’s cologne and aftershave. 

We got lucky and were able to catch a taxi right at the entrance to Cinnamon Bay to get to the Reef Bay Trailhead. It was about a 4.5 mile drive. The roads are extremely narrow and winding and there is no shoulder. It would have been very dangerous for us to walk.  We hiked Reef Bay Trail, plus the Petroglyph Trail. Reef Bay Trail is 4.1 miles, 1135 feet of elevation gain.  The trail is mostly downhill going through two forests and the remains of a sugar mill on its way to a beach. There is a 1/2 mile spur leading to a grove with petroglyphs and a waterfall, a really special place. One of the petroglyphs has become the symbol of St. John.

There was a grove not far from the beach that was filled with hermit crabs. It was fascinating to see all their unique shells.  Watch for the Hermit Crabs of St. John poster and calendar coming soon! 😉

After the hike, we waited at the trailhead for a taxi to go to the Ram Head hike. None were coming along. I put my thumb out and a man in a car stopped. He was a Danish tourist. He gave us a ride back to Cruz Bay. I had read that hitchhiking is fairly common on the island.  We walked to the taxi stand and asked for a ride to Ram Head. We were told the taxis aren’t running because it was a holiday.  We had no clue. It was Three Kings Day, or the  Epiphany. Not wanting to test whether or not we could find another friendly driver to give us a ride back after the hike, we got lunch and walked to the VC, which was now open. The VC was one of the more basic ones we have seen. We were saddened by the exhibit about the history of the island. The original human inhabitants, the Taino were virtually exterminated by the arrival of Europeans, followed by slavery of West Africans to run the sugar plantations.  We also expected to see more birds here. We learned that many plants and animals on St. John were introduced by the Europeans and have ravaged the island. Mongeese were introduced by the plantation owners to control the rat population in the sugar cane fields and they have decimated bird and turtle populations as they eat the eggs. There are white donkeys, deer, goats and other animals that aren’t native that roam wild around the island today. It has been a sad narrative in many of the parks that Europeans have severely damaged these places and the National Parks are doing their best with very limited funds to preserve and when possible restore these special places. 

 We asked about Ranger programs. They don’t have any currently, but they have an active Friends of the Park group. They have presentations M through F at Cinnamon Bay where we are staying!

We spent the afternoon swimming and sunning at beautiful Cinnamon Bay beach. We watched some surfers make use of the giant waves.

We showered and went up to the restaurant to try a Rum Punch and attend the Friends of the Park Talk. The topic of the night was Sea Turtles. It was a fascinating presentation. There are three families of sea turtles- hawksbill, green, and leatherback. The most common are the green, and leatherbacks can grow to 7.5 feet long and 1500 pounds! They will eat up to 500 pounds of jelly fish per day!  We had dinner at the Rain Tree Cafe. The menu changes daily and is themed. Monday was pasta night. Our food was delicious and the portions were generous. 

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

We were up early walking the beach at sunrise. It was so fun to see what washed up on the beach overnight. We packed up and said goodbye to one of the best campsites of our National Parks experiences. 

The Cinnamon Bay staff arranged a taxi to take us to Cruz Bay for our 1/2 day snorkel trip. The boat picked passengers up in St. Thomas and then picked us up. We first went to Maho Bay which is known for their sea turtles. Sunday and Monday were very windy with huge waves, and today was only slightly better, so the sand was churned up and it was tough to see the bottom. We snorkeled around and saw some pretty fish, but were feeling disappointed that we hadn’t seen any turtles, and all of a sudden, we saw a good sized green turtle right below us, and it surfaced about 2 feet away from us, took a quick breath and descended again. What amazing animals! Tim also saw a sting ray. 

It was time to get back on the catamaran and go to our second location. 

We arrived at the beautiful, lush green island of Lovango. We were moored right over a reef. We donned our snorkel gear again and jumped back in the water. We were immediately greeted with schools of gorgeous colored fish, and a magical reef. There water was very clear here.  The time flew by as we were mesmerized by the variety of sea creatures. Tim even saw an octopus! Back on the catamaran, we were treated to Painkillers and Rum Punch! They dropped us back off at Cruz Bay.  

Tim was a bit tired of peanut butter, so we grabbed a terrific sandwich at Northshore Deli and walked through a beautiful photography gallery. Then we decided the best way to spend a few more hours on St. John was to walk back to Salomon Bay Beach again. We swam and sunned and talked with some fellow travelers. We walked back, picked up Tim’s backpack from the snorkel shop and boarded the passenger ferry back to St. Thomas. Amy picked us up and we had a relaxing night. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

We spent the morning taking care  of some things and in the afternoon we traveled to the west side of St. Thomas to “hike” to Mermaid’s Chair where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. On the way, we made a short detour to The University of the Virgin Islands bookstore, so Tim could get a t shirt!

 To reach Mermaid’s Chair we drove to the entrance of the gated Botany Bay subdivision on the far west side of the island. We parked outside the gate and went to the guard house where they entered our names and phone numbers into their system and took our photos. After that we entered the community and walked the paved road 1.4 miles to Mermaid’s Chair, which is the strip of land that divides the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Don’t let the fact that the road is paved fool you. The road was very steep.

On our way back from Mermaid’s Chair we turned and followed the sign to Sandy Bay Beach, about 1/2 mile round trip additional. That side trip was so worth it. We ended up at a secluded beach that was breathtaking. The sand beach was spectacular! Not a shell, rock or piece of sea weed marred the perfection of the sand.

Apparently the beach is a fun place to snorkel, but the surf was way too rough while we were there. We played in the huge waves and laughed like little kids! All refreshed from the steep hike, we made it back to the gate and the car. 

Amy and I dropped Tim at her house and picked up her two sweet dogs and took them to Sapphire Beach for a walk. Sunset was pretty. After the walk we picked up some Chinese food and headed home for the night. We topped off the evening with a sip of locally made breadfruit vodka. A local distiller wanted to use a locally grown sustainable product. 

Virgin Islands National Park is a truly gorgeous place with a great deal of interesting history to explore. If you enjoy warm weather, sunny skies and a never ending supply of fabulous beaches, check it out!