Author: Jenn Manes

Well folks, soon you will be able to check out the petroglyphs, once again, without having to hike up a steep, two-mile hill because the guided Reef Bay hike is back!

Friends of Virgin Islands National Park announced yesterday that the ranger-led, guided Reef Bay hike will resume on January 8th. This guided hike will be offered on Mondays and Tuesdays only through June 25th. The cost is $100 per person.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Reef Bay hike, it’s a tough 2.2-mile hike down a steep hill from Centerline Road (Route 10 on the map) to Reef Bay beach. There are remnants of the longest-running sugar plantation at the base of Reef Bay and petroglyphs, which are reached from a quick .22-mile spur trail. The hike down isn’t too terrible; it’s the more than two-mile hike back to your vehicle gets you. But thanks to this new guided hike offering, many of you will be able to forgo the grueling hike back up!

Beginning on Monday, January 8th, you will be able to hike down Reef Bay alongside a Virgin Islands National Park ranger, who will discuss a variety of items along the way, including the area’s rich history, the local flora and fauna, and much more. You will have the opportunity to visit the petroglyphs, as well, which are ancient rock carvings done by the pre-Colombian Taino. Once you get to the bottom of Reef Bay, you will hop aboard a boat that will bring you back to Cruz Bay.

Again, the cost of this guided hike is $100, and trips run on Mondays and Tuesdays from 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Trips will depart from the National Park Visitor Center at 8:45 a.m., and transportation will be provided to the Reef Bay trailhead. The hike down takes about three-and-a-half hours, which will be followed by a picturesque, 45-minute boat ride to Cruz Bay.

Please note: The only way to take advantage of the boat ride back to Cruz Bay is by buying a ticket for the guided hike in advance. If you hike Reef Bay on your own, a boat will not be waiting at the bottom to transport you back to town, nor will you be able to hop on the boat when it is there. You can only get on the boat if you are a paid participant of the guided Reef Bay hike. 

And for those of you who have been paying attention to our weather lately, you have probably seen that the island has received a fair amount of rain this past week. Rains like this create a beautiful waterfall at Reef Bay. The picture below were taken after a good rain last year. A big thanks to Sarah Hanson for sharing it with me!

If you’d like to learn more about the guided Reef Bay hike, please visit the Friends of Virgin Islands National Park’s website. Ready to book? Simply click this link to visit their secure checkout page.

Click here to learn about other educational offerings within the Virgin Islands National Park.

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Christmas is one week away and St. John is gearing up for its arrival! Here is a list of upcoming holiday events…

Sunday, December 17th 

The Governor’s Children’s Christmas Party has been rescheduled for this evening from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Franklin Powell Park, which is located across from the ferry dock in Cruz Bay. All children up to age 12 can receive a present during this event.

Wednesday, December 20th

Dust off your tacky sweaters and your tinsel, because time for The Tap Room’s annual sweater party and bake-off! The party starts at 7 p.m. and continues until it ends! Bring a dozen or so cookies and/or baked goods to be judged and enjoy! Don’t forget to wear your most festive gear!

The All Island Holiday Party, more commonly called The Prom, was rescheduled for 9 p.m. on Wednesday night after this weekend’s soaking rains. The party starts at 9 p.m. in the courtyard near Sun Dog Cafe.

Thursday, December 21st

Sing St. John will hold its 6th annual Holiday Celebration in Cruz Bay’s Frank Powell Park on Thursday, December 21st, from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

Featuring the St. John Recovery Choir, the event is free and includes songs for Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, and the New Year.

The program begins with performances by the Bethany-Emmaus Moravian Joint Choir and the Nazareth Evangelical Lutheran Church Choir, and it concludes with a rousing all-choir rendition of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”

The Ocama Youth Choir will bring their voices to the bandstand, and the Love City Pan Dragons will fill the park with holiday steel band music.

The event includes a community carol sing, a necessary element for Kristen Carmichael-Bowers, director of Sing St. John.

“It doesn’t feel like the holidays to me until we have had a good old-fashioned carol sing,” Carmichael-Bowers said. ”It’s so good to be among friends and neighbors of all ages, feeling a sense of wonder at that special connection. When we join our different voices together, we produce such a joyful and satisfying tapestry of sound. And when we add the lights and the beautifully decorated park to the experience, ah! It’s a bit of heaven!”

Saturday, December 23rd

The Love City Pan Dragons are holding a Christmas concert to help raise funds for a summer trip to Antigua. The Pan Dragons are scheduled to perform in Antigua Panorama with the Cool & Smooth Ebonites, the home band of their instructor and arranger, Ikema Dyer. Ikema plays steel pan at the Windmill Bar quite often, so chances are, you’ve had the opportunity to see him perform. The event costs just $15 and will feature passed apps and a cash bar. It is being held at 5 p.m. at St. John School of the Arts.

You can purchase tickets via Paypal at www.paypal.me/lovecitypandragons or via Venmo @lovecitypandragons. Please include your name, phone number, and email when you purchase your ticket. Looking to support this trip? You can simply send a donation via either PayPal or Venmo too.

Sunday, December 24th 

I am very sad to share that Santa will not be arriving by ferry as usual. This is an event sponsored by Caneel Bay Resort, and they have decided not to do it this year. I think it goes without saying, but EHI Acquisition (the firm that operated the hotel at Caneel Bay), you are getting a boatload of coal this holiday season.

However, over in Coral Bay, the first annual Coral Bay Holiday Boat Parade will begin at 4:30 p.m. when Santa arrives to greet the children. His visit will be followed by a snowball fight at the Johnny Lime volleyball courts. The boat parade starts at 6 p.m. and there will be live music afterward at Johnny Lime and Salty Mongoose.

A BIG THANKS to our friends in Coral Bay for stepping up and holding this new event for the kids!

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE Christmas time in the islands! Have a great day everyone!

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The island is starting to get busy, which means it’s time to keep an eye on the St. Thomas cruise ship schedule.

Our busy season coincides with the winter months in the States. The colder you all are up there, the busier we tend to get down here. This also holds true for the cruise ships. We’ve seen an increase in people visiting St. John over the past month or so, and now I am starting to see a pretty decent uptick in cruise ship visitors.

You may be wondering why this matters when the larger ships dock over in St. Thomas. (We get the smaller ships that anchor off of St. John, which I posted about last week. Click here to read all about that.) Well those folks, like many of you, prefer to spend their day on St. John. Many of those ships provide their own ferry service to St. John, and then their guests hop into taxis and head to the beach. And overwhelmingly, that beach is Trunk Bay.

So if you have a ton of ships docked in St. Thomas, you may want to skip Trunk Bay. Next Wednesday, for example, has more than 15,000 people visiting on five ships in St. Thomas. I’d highly recommend picking another beach that day.

So how do you know when there are a lot of ships scheduled to dock in St. Thomas? VINow.com keeps a comprehensive list on its website. It includes the name of the ship, the number of people expected to be on board, and the hours that it will be in port. Here’s a quick portion of next week’s schedule:

WICO is the dock near Havensight in St. Thomas. CB stands for Crown Bay, which is also in St. Thomas. If a ship is scheduled to anchor off of St. John, it will say Cruz Bay on the schedule.

If you would like to see which ships are scheduled to visit, please click here to visit vinow.com. Schedules are posted months in advance.

Informtion you can use right here on ExploreSTJ.com! Want to know more about the island? Consider taking an island tour with me! Explore STJ Island Tours are rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor. You can learn more about my tours, plus read my 5-star reviews at www.explorestj.com/tour.

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