St. John Off The Beaten Track

Excerpted from St. John Off The Beaten Track © 2006 Gerald Singer

The Francis Bay Trail begins at the restored stone building at the intersection of the Leinster Bay Road and the Maho Bay Campground access road. It is a relatively easy 0.3-mile walk with only one small hill to negotiate.

The trail goes through a dry scrub forest, past the ruins of an old residence and on to the beach at Francis Bay. It then winds through a mangrove forest and passes by a brackish pond before emerging from the mangroves at the dirt road between the beach entrance and the paved road at Mary's Creek.

The renovated stone building at the beginning of the trail now serves as a National Park Service storage house. The two dates, 1814 and 1911, inscribed on the structure refer to the original completion and subsequent restoration of the building. There is a chimney attached to the structure with a hole in the bottom that leads to the inside of the storage house. Behind the storage building are old stone walls and other ruins dating back to the subsistence farming days on St. John.

The vegetation along the trail is, for the most part, disturbed and scrubby owing to the fact that the area was used to raise cattle for many years. There are, however, still several fine examples of tamarind trees, genips and healthy mangrove forests.

Old Residence
The ruins of an ornate old residence can be found on the right side of the trail about twenty yards from the trailhead. This structure is in unstable condition, and it is dangerous to get too close to or walk in the ruins.

old residence last used by the Lockhart family from St. Thomas as a vacation home

There is a tile covered gallery floor, surrounded by a concrete railing that is still in fairly good condition. The house at one time had a wood frame second story and the gallery was covered by a section of roof extending from the main building.

Unlike the traditional detached kitchens of the old Virgin Islands, the cookhouse for this residence was attached to the estate house. This kitchen contained five ovens, which were placed under a stone hood leading to a chimney. Stairs behind the cook house lead to another gallery above. Behind the gallery is a freshwater well, and to the west are the remains of another small structure. Imagine a family living here in the not-so-distant past.

Semi-improved trails found just after the old residence lead to the remains of several old stone structures.

ruin located in the bush south of the Francis Bay Trail

Bird Watching
Francis Bay is a favorite spot for bird watchers. Good places to observe the birds are at the pond overlook along the walking trail at the top of the hill, from the wooden bench beside the edge of the pond, and from the boardwalk that extends into the pond. Bring binoculars to fully enjoy these popular bird watching spots.

Birds of Francis Bay
“Nestled behind Mary Point, the northernmost point of St. John is one of the island's most productive birding spots. This pond, the nearby forest and the Francis Bay shoreline provide the observer with a great variety of birdlife at any time of the year. The brackish pond is rimmed by mangroves and other salt tolerant vegetation, which harbor migrants and local specialties such as Mangrove Cuckoo, Scaly-naped Pigeon, White-cheeked Pintail and Smooth-billed Ani.

There also are opportunities for good views of a variety of waterfowl, herons, shorebirds and warblers. Along the beach and rocky shoreline, brown booby, brown pelican, magnificent frigatebird and various terns can be seen offshore.”

From the article “Mary Point Pond, St John” by Jim Riddle, Robert Norton and Thelma Douglas appearing in Herbert A. Raffaele’s authoritative book, “Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.”

“A wonderful bird is a pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak Food enough for a week;
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.”

Often attributed to Ogden Nash but actually from “The Pelican” by Dixon Lanier Merrith.

National Park Bird Watching Walk
The VI National Park offers a bird watching walk around Francis Bay Pond, exploring dry forest, salt pond and seashore habitats. For more information contact the VI National Park online at www.nps.gov/viis or (340) 776-8811.

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