Our second day saw us heading back to the north, Atlantic, shore which is where all the beaches are. We made it to Trunk Bay by 8:30. We were the first ones there - even before the park ranger who was supposed to collect admission fees. (This is despite the fact that officially the park had been open for an hour). Again, calm blue seas and skies! We set up under an overhanging tropical tree. In the first picture you can see the island of St. Thomas way off in the distance and covered with houses.
Galen grabbed his flippers and headed for the water eager to see the coral reef that surrounds the cay in the bay. At first, he just saw the white sandy bottom and the occasional white-sand colored fish, but as he got closer to the cay, sea life began to show up. Around the cay he began to see purple fan color and blue and green tropical fish. Trunk bay also has an underwater trail with signs fixed to the sea floor. When following the trail, he saw a 5 or 6 ft. barracuda. Galen started swimming away - slowly - but it occurred to him that he didn't think he could outswim a fish, much less a fish shaped like a dart. For the record, there have been very few barracuda attacks. Still, it was was big as Galen! (It was a big fish, and it had big teeth.)
And where was Melissa this whole time? Taking in the view from a nice shady spot!
Our drive back to Fish Bone for lunch took us by Caneel Bay, the original St. John resort hotel. A/C has been recently added as an option in rooms, but there is still no TV or radio. Caneel Bay trés chic is most famous for having more staff than guests.
We snapped a picture of ourselves at the Caneel Bay overlook.
Fish Bone sits up on a hill over a bay on a half-acre. We took these pictures from the road that goes to the 'Bone as it passes by Ditleff point. One picture gives a nice view in relation to the bay, and the other shows the "neighborhood," so to speak, of all the houses around Fish Bone. Joan told us the other houses just don't get the breeze that Fish Bone does. The hills behind Fish Bone have no houses because they lie inside the National Park boundary. (The yellow house on the hill above and closest to Fish Bone, I think, is "Villa Paulette" which I ran across on another site and in the far-away picture the "Sea Turtle" villa is the blue-roofed house on the left well up the hill.)
Another picture, with both Melissa and Galen, at Fish Bone overlooking Fish Bay.
The banaquit is the official bird of the Virgin Islands. It makes a little sound the guidebook describes as "tsip". They are everywhere! Even though they drink from the hummingbird feeders, like this one, they aren't hummingbirds, and can't hover like a true hummer. This one is balancing him(her?)self on the feeder perch. They often came by to investigate our breakfast plates when we had finished eating.
Instead of turning off to Cocoloba Trail, which is the trail Fish Bone is on, if you stay on the marina trail you can follow the road on south until it starts taking you up again, you will cross over to get a view of Reef Bay. This is probably the one major area we did not get to see on St. John. We had hoped to be able to get down to the water from here, but didn't know where to hike. There is a trail on the island mainland from route 10 (Centerline Road) down to Reef Bay, but we never quite got to it. We would definitely snorkel here if we returned. On the Reef Bay trail, too, you can see the St. John petroglyphs, some stone carvings perhaps left by "pre-Columbian inhabitants", perhaps Tainos.
Since we were unsuccesful at getting down into Reef Bay from where we were, we headed on towards the eastern end of the island. On the way there, on route 10 there is the Bordeaux overlook which has a colorful picturesque view of Coral Bay, the "town" on the east end of the island. Again, you can see the park boundaries by where the houses aren't.
A little ways down, you can see the Coral Bay a little closer up. Definitely a popular place with the yachting crowd. Interestingly, though it's a smaller town than Cruz Bay, gas was 20 - 30 cents/gallon cheaper at $2.69. Cash Only. But Full Service.
We headed past Coral Bay to Salt Pond Bay, which is supposed to be good snorkeling. This was going to be Melissa's first time at snorkeling. After the .2 mile hike, though, the water was too sandy and the sun was already too low for good snorkeling. Galen was quite impressed with the cactus on the tropical island. They were often 10 - 15 feet tall. Again, this is the southern side of the island and drier than the north, but there are cactus on the north side as well. Joan told us that Ram's Head, the hill you see at first picture, is a great place to view sunrises and sunsets, but we didn't know that, yet! Salt Pond Bay is so named because there is a saline pond that lies on the land divinding Salt Pond Bay from Drunk Bay. (see island map.)
Since it was getting too late for snorkeling, we substituted an island drive which first took us back by Coral Bay.
St. John has several hundred wild donkeys that roam the island. We only saw them on this day, and we saw them twice (later at Caneel Bay). While there are mongooses, donkeys, white-tailed deer, bats, and rats on the island, the bats are the only indigenous mammals. We saw them all but the bats and rats which is not a problem for me.
Near sunset found us overlooking Maho Bay - this is back on the north side of the island (see island map).
And a little further down the road, Trunk Bay.
Having just crawled out of the water, we decided we were looking mighty fine and decided to stop in at Caneel Bay as we drove by. Funny thing, first thing we saw were more wild donkeys grazing the grounds. We walked down to their beach, they actually have seven, and caught the last of the sunset. There is a dock where you can sail right up to the resort.
