Our plans were to go back to Trunk Bay which is where Galen had enjoyed the best snorkeling and Melissa had not nor had we taken pictures. So, we got up pretty early to get a good spot on the beach. Fortunately, we were a little later than we planned, because as we walked in the park ranger waved a notice in the air at us about "high surf" and "poor snorkeling". So we decided to head to Honeymoon Beach instead about which many people had gushed in the guest book back at Fishbone. Problem, we only had a general idea about how to get there. (The pictures of the trail were really taken when we were coming back up.)
We knew you had to take a trail to get to Honeymoon, and the trail head was supposed to be near the national park sign, but when we had investigated a road to take earlier, it was clearly marked "No Public Access." This time, we parked and noticed a posting that said "Caneel Hill Trail Spur" and had instructions to take that trail until it intersected with "Lind Point Trail." Lind Point Trail was a much longer trail that ran all the way back into Cruz Bay over a mile away.
Now, Caneel Hill Trail Spur, Galen knew from studying the topological survey map on the wall at Fishbone, was the trail we needed. But he thought he remembered that there were several trails in the area. Trouble was, there was no trail there! When you ran around the highway hedgerow, however, a trail sign boldly proclaimed Lind Point Trail. We knew we had to be on that trail eventually, but quite frankly since we were only wearing flip flops and not serious hiking shoes, we were a little wary of any multi-mile scenic hikes we might take. And the rocky path into dark forest was not the most inviting path we'd seen.
In the end, we decided to head on down, carrying snorkels, backpack, and chairs, and see where that rabbit trail took us. It did, at least, lead down in elevation and the surf did get louder. The woods were pretty thick, but after clambering over stones and steps and roots we did finally come to a tri-section of trails and there was even a post that said "Honeymoon Beach," and a little arrow. A little more, and we finally popped, alone, onto the beach!
We placed our chairs in some convenient shade, but decided it was really too choppy to go out snorkeling. The waves generally kept there distance, but occasionally they would dampen our toes. Once, though, they came all the way up to where our chairs were. Amazingly, we had moved our backpack and camera up higher just 30 seconds before. I am not making this up.
There were plenty of boats moored, and you could see St. Thomas across the blue water.
We spent some time relaxing and taking in the view of our toes. You can hear the waves pounding in.
We saw a few other people snorkeling, we did decide to try it. We didn't stay long, however, because the water wasn't clear enough and the waves were to big to enjoy it. After that, we packed up for home.
But instead we got in the Jeep and went to Cinnamon Bay! We're wild and crazy! The waves were much bigger, and could sweep you off your feet if you weren't careful (but there was no tidal pull back out to the ocean, really).
There were even two people surfing. And this bay was calmer than a swimming pool the first day we explored the island.
Some nice people popped a pic of us together. We thought it would be a nice way to end our St. John days because we were planning on heading to the airport early the next day and check our bags so that we might have time to explore Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas.
When we used the outdoor "rock shower," which we did all but one time, we had a nice airy view of Fish Bay between the shampoo bottles.
That night, Joan, our Fishbone hostess, returned from her boating adventure around Anguilla. We told her our plans, but she opined that she didn't think we could check our bags more than four hours early - required to pull off our sightseeing plan. What's more, she offered to rearrange her schedule and take us on a guided snorkeling around Ditleff Point!