My Favorite Short Day Hiking Trail

All hiking trails on St. John can easily be done in a half or whole day; feeling comfortable on where you going when you only have one day is a different story!

After the easy hikes behind the National Park Center, My next favorite for first (or maybe only) timer hikers on St. John is the Cinnamon Bay Self Guided Trail.

Note: This is NOT the trail that starts/finishes on North Shore Roads and finishes/starts on Centerline. That trail starts on the same side of the road, but at the Trail Head sign where North Shore road takes a pretty sharp left hand turn, and it basically goes straight up (or down, whichever way you start).

The self guided trail is great for just about any age over 4, because it's always shady from the old, huge trees that weren't cut during plantation years; and the trail itself is relatively flat. (once again, I never recommend hiking in flip flops, but if it's all you have, then try it! This trail is behind the ruins, across the street from the campgrounds and visible from the road. Just going to the ruins on the raod is a treat. But if you step behind the building in back of the old horse mill, you will see a trail that goes into the woods. The trail has markers along the way, identifying trees, animals, bugs and other "trail things." It wanders along side of a ravine (called a "ghut" here), for less than a half mile, then crosses over and then follows the ravine back (with more markers, one that identifies a small cemetery) to the same starting point at the ruins.

Note: my friends tease me about my version of "relatively flat" and the rest of the world's version of "relatively flat." When hiking on St. John, it's never absolutely flat; there are rocks, tree trunks, tree stumps, riverlets and ravines to continually step over!