USVI-On-Line

We were able to cross a few things off the list of things we hadn't done on STJ yet.
One of the things was to hike up to Brown Bay. It's a fairly easy hike via a nice trail. When we got to the beach there were a huge number of live conch all over in the shallow water. You can walk a long way out without even getting up to your waist.It's very grassy,with a lot of urchins, but there are a couple of areas where you can walk out while staying on the sand.
A few pics:



As usual, we were the only ones there,though the owner of Winter Moon did walk her dog while we were there. There is a nice sandy beach that gets rocky as you head to the ruins.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12829989@N00/4690061963/" title="Brown Bay by taterjoes, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4025/469 ... 7306_b.jpg" width="1024" height="774" alt="Brown Bay"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12829989@N00/4690062271/" title="IMG_3202 by taterjoes, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/469 ... 485a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_3202"></a>

There are some rather impressive ruins past the beach. There are a lot of long,thin, spaghetti like vines giving them a kind of a Raiders of the Lost Ark feeling. I'm not all that in to the old ruins, but there are some pretty cool ones up there.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12829989@N00/4690696470/" title="IMG_3189 by taterjoes, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/469 ... d4f0_b.jpg" width="1024" height="774" alt="IMG_3189"></a>



I really like this coral corner stone:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12829989@N00/4690696598/" title="IMG_3191 by taterjoes, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1300/469 ... f3af_b.jpg" width="1024" height="774" alt="IMG_3191"></a>



I'm glad we made the effort to go up there. It's a nice trail with some nice views along the way:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12829989@N00/4690061095/" title="View from Brown Bay trail by taterjoes, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/469 ... 3df3_b.jpg" width="1024" height="773" alt="View from Brown Bay trail"></a>


This was a strange "structure" that someone had made:


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12829989@N00/4690062353/" title="Brown Bay by taterjoes, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/469 ... 0d2c_b.jpg" width="1024" height="774" alt="Brown Bay"></a>



I seem to find some dead trees make for nice photos. That's Tortola in the background:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12829989@N00/4695720499/" title="IMG_3186 by taterjoes, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/469 ... c5cb_b.jpg" width="780" height="1024" alt="IMG_3186"></a>

Hope you all enjoyed the tour!

Thanks for the pictures. Brown's Bay is one of our favorite spots on St John. There is good snorkeling on left side while the right side isn't that bad either. As long as the wind is slightly calm we always try to make it over the hill at least once. We also noticed many more urchins sitting in the grass this year.

thanks for the tour!

just curious - are all the conch shells still there??They used to line the last part of the trail, then they were in a formation near the beach the last time we were there.

Thanks for the tour! I have never been to Brown Bay, but I think we will go next month. It looks really nice.

The conch shells were removed by the Park Service a couple of years ago. I don't know if any have been replaced.

JT - looking back at the beach from the water in that one pix to someone sitting on the beach, just in front of that is buried tresure. Several years ago we hiked in to Brown Bay and there was a 40'-50' dugout canoe that had been excavated and the hull to the gunwales was exposed. The boat was hull-up in about 4'-6' of sand, parallel to the beach. I don't think it was hauled out...

JT,Like you we crossed the Brown Bay hike off our list 2 weeks ago.We had been there years ago by boat and my wife loaded up on so many (empty) conchs that Cleve made her leave over half fearing the boat would capsize.She has always wanted to go back by the trail.Well I finaly let her talk me in to it along with the help of our 3 daughters.Unfortunately for my wife the closest she gets to a hike is watching a football game.Her knee will never be the same.
Mike

Great pictures JT! That looks like a great beach to "beachcomb" on. Is Brown Bay part of the NPS?

We love Brown Bay!

Both times that we've been there we've been not only the only ones on the beach/in the water, but on the trail as well.

Thanks for the tour JT. Nice pictures. We were on the way doing that hike, but we ended up chosing Ram head instead. Maybe next time.

How did you know it was the owner of Wintermoon? Did you stay there? The reason I ask is because we did stay there the last week in May and really liked it (including the owners and dogs/cats).

Maggy

Maggy wrote:Thanks for the tour JT. Nice pictures. We were on the way doing that hike, but we ended up chosing Ram head instead. Maybe next time.

How did you know it was the owner of Wintermoon? Did you stay there? The reason I ask is because we did stay there the last week in May and really liked it (including the owners and dogs/cats).

Maggy

Maggy, Peggy introduced herself to us and it turned out her husband is a contractor and we knew a lot of the same folks. She was a really sweet lady. I would seriously consider renting Wintermoon next time.

Chet, That was BT sitting on the beach. There was also a red float washed up on the beach. There weren't any shells along the path, but there were some arranged on a piece of driftwood board near the beach. I think that we took a picture of them. I'll look. As far as the conch shells on the beach and in the water are concerned, I've never seen anything close to the numbers before.

They were everywhere! I wish that we had taken more shots, but I found this one:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12829989@N00/4690062119/" title="Conch in Brown Bay by taterjoes, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/469 ... f002_b.jpg" width="1024" height="774" alt="Conch in Brown Bay"></a>

Loved Brown Bay but not the hike!!

I found the thread with some Brown Bay pics.

Thank you very much for finding your old report and bumping it up. This looks like a very nice hike. Now I need to add another thing to our list for this year's trip.

Thanks for the pics, we are going to have to check these out.