My Favorite Hike On St. John

The most popular trail on St. John is worthy of its stature - Reef Bay Trail is by far a great hike. Just remember: what goes easily down, must come back up!

The trail can take anywhere from 3 to 5 hours or more, depending on your fitness as well as your sense of adventure, so take plenty of water (not just a small bottle from the store) and some trail mix, fruit or other munchies to enjoy at the bottom on the beach.

The easiest way to get to the Reef Bay Trail Head is to take the bus.All the drivers know where to let you off, and then you can wait for the bus to take you back to Cruz Bay(or Coral Bay).

For those who want to hike this beautiful trail but might not have the guts or muscle to get back up, the National Park offers a hike down the trail, and then a boat picks you up at the bottom and takes you back around to the National Park Visitors Center once a week. Obviously, advanced reservations are recommended, but they sometimes have last minute cancellations.

The Petroglyphs are down one finger trail, and there's a cemetery behind the mill that has a path that leads to Reef Bay. Another little trail takes to you Genti Beach. Lameshur Trail is also towards the end of Reef Bay Trail, which has a whole set of cool ruins and finds. Lots to see and do on this one.

This is one of the only trails on St. John that has a bathroom at the end of the trail, and is one of my favorite trivia notes. The story goes that when Lady Bird Johnson visited St. John and hiked down Reef Bay Trail, she asked where the bathroom was. Enough said.

There are numerous descriptions of this trail all over the Internet.

(Good, trained trail runners do this trail in under 2 hours! Don't try this unless you are very fit.)

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!