Every trail on the island’s real terrain, lit by the sun at your start time, with the hours each one stays cool enough to walk today.
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Every trail on St. John today
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Most of St. John is Virgin Islands National Park, and its trails run from the ridge down to the beaches. This guide covers 16 trails, from the five-minute climb up Peace Hill to the 5.0-mile round trip on the L'Esperance Trail. The steepest is the Bordeaux Mountain Trail (about 1,013 ft up in 1.1 miles), the highest point on any trail is 1,042 ft on the Bordeaux Mountain Trail, and 7 trails are easy walks under a mile each way.
Today on St. John: sunrise is at 6:10 AM (first light about 5:50 AM), it already feels like 86°F by 8 AM, and the heat peaks near 90°F feels-like around 2:00 PM. The UV index reaches 8 around 1:00 PM, and the sun sets at 6:04 PM. On a day like this, start the long trails at first light and save the open scrub trails for early morning or the last two hours before sunset.
Distances are out and back. Climb counts every foot up, both ways. Walking time assumes 2 mph plus an hour for every 1,500 ft of climbing, before any stops.
| Trail | Round trip | Climb | High point | Walking time | Difficulty | Shade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L'Esperance Trail | 5.0 mi | 1,125 ft | 750 ft | 3 h 15 min | Strenuous | Mostly shaded |
| Reef Bay Trail | 4.7 mi | 925 ft | 793 ft | 2 h 59 min | Strenuous | Mostly shaded |
| Caneel Hill Trail | 4.3 mi | 1,859 ft | 809 ft | 3 h 23 min | Strenuous | Part shade |
| Lind Point Trail | 3.2 mi | 384 ft | 149 ft | 1 h 53 min | Easy | Part shade |
| Brown Bay Trail | 3.1 mi | 679 ft | 246 ft | 1 h 60 min | Moderate | Mostly open |
| Lameshur Bay Trail | 2.6 mi | 809 ft | 449 ft | 1 h 51 min | Moderate | Mostly shaded |
| Johnny Horn Trail | 2.4 mi | 710 ft | 491 ft | 1 h 40 min | Moderate | Mostly open |
| Bordeaux Mountain Trail | 2.2 mi | 1,017 ft | 1,042 ft | 1 h 45 min | Strenuous | Mostly shaded |
| Ram Head Trail | 2.1 mi | 311 ft | 191 ft | 1 h 14 min | Moderate | No shade |
| Leinster Bay Trail | 1.9 mi | 148 ft | 69 ft | 1 h 03 min | Easy | Mostly open |
| Cinnamon Bay Trail | 1.9 mi | 842 ft | 865 ft | 1 h 31 min | Moderate | Mostly shaded |
| Francis Bay Trail | 1.1 mi | 29 ft | 28 ft | 0 h 33 min | Easy | Part shade |
| Drunk Bay Trail | 0.7 mi | 28 ft | 15 ft | 0 h 23 min | Easy | No shade |
| Yawzi Point Trail | 0.7 mi | 75 ft | 52 ft | 0 h 23 min | Easy | Mostly open |
| Petroglyph Trail | 0.4 mi | 43 ft | 90 ft | 0 h 14 min | Easy | Mostly shaded |
| Peace Hill Trail | 0.2 mi | 61 ft | 148 ft | 0 h 08 min | Easy | Mostly open |
Strenuous · 5.0 mi round trip · 1,125 ft of climbing · mostly shaded
From Centerline Road at L'Esperance to the Reef Bay Trail and Reef Bay. Old estate road, ruins and a huge baobab, all the way down to the sea.
Long and remote. Fewer people walk it than any other trail here.
Strenuous · 4.7 mi round trip · 925 ft of climbing · mostly shaded
From Centerline Road (Route 10) to Genti Bay and the Reef Bay sugar factory ruins. The petroglyphs at the spring pool (a short spur), the sugar factory ruins and a quiet beach at the bottom.
Going down is the easy part. You climb about 800 ft back up in the warmest part of your walk.
Strenuous · 4.3 mi round trip · 1,859 ft of climbing · part shade
From Cruz Bay, near Mongoose Junction to Caneel Bay. The lookout tower on Caneel Hill, about 800 ft up.
It climbs and drops twice, so the profile is steeper than the distance suggests.
Easy · 3.2 mi round trip · 384 ft of climbing · part shade
From the NPS Visitor Center, Cruz Bay to Honeymoon and Salomon beaches. Views over Cruz Bay and a beach at the end.
The closest trail to the ferry dock.
Moderate · 3.1 mi round trip · 679 ft of climbing · mostly open
From East End Road to Brown Bay. A quiet beach you will likely have to yourself.
Dry scrub over the saddle with little shade.
Moderate · 2.6 mi round trip · 809 ft of climbing · mostly shaded
From Great Lameshur Bay to the Reef Bay Trail at the petroglyph spur. The back way to the petroglyphs, passing the Lameshur plantation ruins.
A forest saddle of about 450 ft each way.
Moderate · 2.4 mi round trip · 710 ft of climbing · mostly open
From Coral Bay (Emmaus Moravian Church) to Leinster Bay. Ridge views across to Tortola and the ruins of an old Danish guardhouse.
Open ridge in places.
Strenuous · 2.2 mi round trip · 1,017 ft of climbing · mostly shaded
From Little Lameshur Bay to Bordeaux Mountain Road, near the summit. The climb to the island's high point. Bordeaux Mountain is 1,277 ft.
The steepest sustained climb on St. John, about 1,000 ft in a mile.
Moderate · 2.1 mi round trip · 311 ft of climbing · no shade
From Saltpond Bay parking to Ram Head point. Blue Cobblestone Beach, then the cliff top over the Caribbean at about 200 ft.
Almost no shade past Saltpond Bay. This is cactus and scrub, so the sun is the whole story.
Easy · 1.9 mi round trip · 148 ft of climbing · mostly open
From Annaberg sugar mill to Waterlemon Cay. One of the best snorkels on the island at the end.
Flat along the shore. Bring your fins.
Moderate · 1.9 mi round trip · 842 ft of climbing · mostly shaded
From Cinnamon Bay, by the sugar mill ruins to Centerline Road. An old Danish road climbing through moist forest.
Shaded almost all the way. You get the beach after the descent.
Easy · 1.1 mi round trip · 29 ft of climbing · part shade
From the Francis Bay parking to the salt pond and the beach. Birding on the salt pond: herons, stilts, ducks and pelicans.
Flat. It works at any hour.
Easy · 0.7 mi round trip · 28 ft of climbing · no shade
From Saltpond Bay to Drunk Bay. A windward rock beach past the salt pond, known for its driftwood sculptures.
No shade at all. The water is too rough to swim.
Easy · 0.7 mi round trip · 75 ft of climbing · mostly open
From Little Lameshur Bay to Yawzi Point. The point between Little and Great Lameshur bays.
Short and open.
Easy · 0.4 mi round trip · 43 ft of climbing · mostly shaded
From the Reef Bay Trail to the petroglyph pool. Taíno carvings reflected in a spring-fed pool below a seasonal waterfall.
A spur, usually walked as part of Reef Bay or Lameshur Bay.
Easy · 0.2 mi round trip · 61 ft of climbing · mostly open
From North Shore Road to the old windmill tower. A five-minute climb to one of the widest views on the north shore.
The shortest trail on this list.
St. John sits at 18° north, so the sun climbs high and fast. The air already feels like the mid-80s °F by mid-morning most of the year, and the hills do most of the shading early and late in the day. The map above traces that terrain shade minute by minute. The valley trails on the south side (Reef Bay, L’Esperance, Lameshur Bay) stay in the shadow of the ridge well after sunrise. The east-end trails (Ram Head, Drunk Bay, Yawzi Point) are open scrub and get full sun from the moment it clears the horizon.
For a first visit, the Reef Bay Trail: 4.7 miles out and back from Centerline Road down to the petroglyphs, the sugar factory ruins and Genti Bay. For a short walk with a big view, Ram Head (2.1 miles out and back from Saltpond Bay). For a trail from the ferry, Lind Point starts at the National Park Visitor Center in Cruz Bay.
Bordeaux Mountain Trail is the steepest: about 1,013 ft up in 1.1 miles. The Reef Bay Trail catches more people out, because the 838 ft walk down has to be climbed back up, usually in the heat of the morning.
Start at first light, about 5:50 AM today. It already feels like 86°F by 8 AM, peaks around 90°F feels-like near 2:00 PM, and the UV index reaches 8. Shaded valley trails such as Reef Bay stay comfortable later into the morning than open scrub trails such as Ram Head.
Bordeaux Mountain Trail, which runs almost entirely under moist forest. Ram Head Trail has the least: it is cactus scrub and salt flat with almost no tree cover, so walk it early or close to sunset.
2.4 miles each way, 4.7 miles out and back, dropping about 838 ft from Centerline Road to the sea. Allow about 2 h 59 min of walking, plus time at the petroglyphs and the ruins.
Yes. The Lind Point Trail starts at the National Park Visitor Center, a few minutes' walk from the ferry dock, and runs 1.6 miles to Honeymoon and Salomon beaches. The Caneel Hill Trail starts near Mongoose Junction and climbs to a lookout tower about 800 ft up.
No. The Virgin Islands National Park trails are free and need no permit. Trunk Bay charges a beach fee, and some trailheads have only a few parking spaces. Check nps.gov/viis for trail closures before you go.
About half a litre to a litre per person for every hour of walking, more on hot afternoons. There is no drinking water on any trail.
The trail lines are OpenStreetMap’s (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Distance, climb, high point and the elevation profile are measured on the open terrain tiles (USGS-derived elevation, about a 9 m grid). Shade from the hills is traced from that terrain toward the sun’s true position over St. John at each minute. Tree cover per trail is our own estimate, not a measurement. Feels-like temperature, UV and cloud come from the Open-Meteo forecast for the middle of the island, refreshed hourly. Trails close after storms: check nps.gov/viis before you go.