Virgin Islands

https://www.nps.gov/viis/index.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Islands_National_Park The Virgin Islands National Park covers approximately 60% of the island of Saint John in the United States Virgin Islands, over 5,500 acres of adjacent ocean, plus nearly all of Hassel Island, just off the Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas harbor. The park is famous for scuba diving and snorkeling and has miles of hiking trails through the tropical rainforest. Cruz Bay is the gateway port to the park. Ferries operate hourly from Red Hook, St. Thomas, thrice daily from Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas and West End, Tortola, twice daily from Jost Van Dyke, and twice weekly from Virgin Gorda. Go beyond Virgin Islands National Park's stunning white-sand beaches. Hike to historic plantation sites to learn about a challenging past when sugar and enslaved labor dominated life on the island. Visit the Indigenous Taino's ancient petroglyphs. Snorkel coral reefs to discover hidden marine life. Two-thirds of the island of St. John is national park, making it a unique destination for visitors. There are no airports on St. John so you must fly to the St. Thomas Cyril E. King Airport (code STT) and travel from there. From the airport you rent a car and drive or take a taxi to Redhook (west end) St. Thomas. From there you can either take a car barge to St. John or the people ferry. Once on St. John you can easily walk from the ferry terminal to the Visitor Center. Cruz Bay Visitor Center Visitor and Information Center for Virgin Islands National Park and Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument. The Visitor Center is just a short, five minute walk (approximately two blocks) from the public ferry dock. Head north north on route 20. Cinnamon Bay Campground Cinnamon Bay Campground offers several types of campsites. For more information visit their page. http://www.cinnamonbay.com/home.html, or call (340) 776-6330 or (340) 693-5654 Cinnamon Bay Resort and Campground Offers tropical cottages, new deluxe eco-tents, platform tent sites and bare sites. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is available at the Rain Tree Cafe on property, and souvenirs, clothing, other essentials and grab and go food items are available from the Cinnamon Bay Beach Shop. A watersports center is located on the beach at Cinnamon and offers equipment rentals to include snorkel gear, surf boards, stand-up paddle boards, kayaks, hobie cats and day sails. Trunk Bay Turquoise water laps white sandy shore fringed with lush green vegetation. Renowned for its beauty, Trunk Bay is a visitor favorite. Queen Angel Fish Queen Angel Fish A Beautiful Queen Angel Fish Sunset Bench at Lind Point A sunset colors the horizon as seen from an overlook above the bay. Lind Point Overlook is a perfect spot to enjoy a Virgin Islands sunset. Four Stilts for the Bird Watchers Four Stilts in the Francis Bay Pond Four Stilts in the Francis Bay Pond Sunset Paddle A Sunset Paddle A Sunset Paddle, a perfect end to your day. Friends Make the Best Partners Virgin Islands National Park and Coral Reef National Monument Celebrate National Philanthropy Day with a tribute to Friends of Virgin Islands National Park. Friends of Virgin Islands National Park was established in 1980, incorporated in 1988 and will be celebrating their 30th anniversary the end of this year. Friends of Virgin Islands National Park Logo VIIS Turtle Monitoring Report 2017 The St. John Sea Turtle Monitoring and Protection Program, funded by the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park, wrapped up the 2017 season with great success. The project’s aim was to conduct island-wide nesting surveys and foster awareness for sea turtle conservation. Turtle Nesting on St. John The State of Our Reefs Post Irma Dr. Caroline Rogers and Jeff Miller gave presentations to the public on April 7, 2018. The presentations provided information on the damage caused to the coral reefs, marine life and mangroves in the Virgin Islands National Park and Coral Reef National Monument. Find out here what is recovering and what may not. Mangroves Recovery David Hamilton Jackson David Hamilton Jackson Teacher, Union Leader, Newspaper Founder, Councilman,Judge, Hero. David Hamilton Jackson Petroglyphs of Reef Bay Within the deep interior of the Reef Bay valley rests one of St. John’s most important clues to a lost culture from the island’s past, the petroglyphs. This captivating place is located at the base of the valley’s highest waterfall, surrounded by the island’s lush tropical vegetation. Here, mysterious faces are found carved into the fall’s blue basalt rock. Image of the petroglyphs located off the Reef Bay Trail in St. John. A Perfect Home for Pirates & Privateers The Virgin Islands’ geographical features and strategic location were key factors in the struggles for control of the islands. The Virgin Islands consist of approximately 90 islands, islets, and cays, all of which are within no more than a day’s sail from each other and some of which are within sight of Puerto Rico. USS Congress part of U.S. Navy squadron of 1822-1842 VIIS YCC 2017 Virgin Islands National Park YCC Team 2017 update. YCC team visiting Catherineberg Ruins. Maho Pavilions These new pavilions are being installed through the support of the Friends of Virgin Islands National Park; they replace the structures destroyed by Hurricane Irma with three smaller pavilions that will be more resilient to storms. Crystal Clear: Nutrient Source Identification for Nearshore Reefs in Virgin Islands National Park Scientists have documented a decline in live coral at Virgin Islands National Park over the past few decades. This decrease has been from episodes of coral disease, intense storms, increased sea water temperatures, and damage from boats overlook looking at an ocean bay heavily wooded with shrubs Archaeology and Cinnamon Bay We discovered a little white house on the beach, one of the oldest standing structures in the Virgin Island’s dating back to the 1600s. Having objects made by the people and cultures that came before us on display, provided a timeline of physical proof of the islands' rich past, inspiring a new appreciation for our heritage in both an older and younger generation and a desire to preserve these treasures for all to enjoy. Little house at Cinnamon bay was the oldest house on St. John. National Park Getaway: Virgin Islands National Park Emerging from the tropical forest, you’ll pass colonial sugar plantation ruins to finally arrive at a white, sandy beach with inviting, crystal blue waters. What better way to end a hike? This may not sound like your typical national park excursion, but that’s the experience you can have in the area known as “America’s paradise” at Virgin Islands National Park. Clear blue water washing up on a sandy and rocky beach Park Air Profiles - Virgin Islands National Park Air quality profile for Virgin Islands National Park. Gives park-specific information about air quality and air pollution impacts for Virgin Islands NP as well as the studies and monitoring conducted for Virgin Islands NP. Spotfin Butterfly fish and coral reef Boy Scouts Explore Park through Sailing Program Every Friday morning this summer, a troop of slightly weary but content boy scouts arrive at the Virgin Islands National Park Visitor Center, led by Captain Bryan Barnes. This is the concluding day of the scouts’ weeklong sailing trip around St. John, and the last stop before they return to St. Thomas for their flight home. Boy Scouts sailing the Virgin Island National Park Reef Bay Trail Rehabilitation Virgin Islands National Park wants to thank Great Smoky Mountain Trail Crew for their tremendous work in rehabilitate the Reef Bay Trail. In addition to clearing the trail much of it had to be reconstructed or redirected. Smoky Mountain Trail Crew Uniforms for the Caribbean Did you know that employees from across the National Park Service stepped up to help their fellow employees after hurricanes hit the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico? In September of 2017, Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest known hurricanes in the Atlantic, lashed the Caribbean and Florida. It was followed within days by Hurricane Maria, another devastating hurricane that also hit Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, among other places. Boxes line a hallway awaiting shipment to parks in the Caribbean. Photo by Kristine Brunsman Making Contact with the Archeological Record: Identifying Contact Period Sites on St. John, US Virgin Islands Relationships between Taino and Island-Carib Indians, Europeans, and Africans during European contact and colonization set the stage for cultural interaction across the Virgin Islands. By understanding social relations during this tempestuous period of Caribbean proto-history, archeologists aim to know about interactions between indigenous populations, Europeans, and Africans during the early period of European expansion and its importance to global history. Artifacts from St. Johns Creating Beautiful Spaces Through Landscape Architecture Learn more about Landscape Architect Kate Randall and the type of work she does for NPS. Kate standing in outdoor area of a building in Christiansted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Series: National Park Service Geodiversity Atlas The servicewide Geodiversity Atlas provides information on <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/geoheritage-conservation.htm">geoheritage</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/geodiversity.htm">geodiversity</a> resources and values all across the National Park System to support science-based management and education. The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1088/index.htm">NPS Geologic Resources Division</a> and many parks work with National and International <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/park-geology.htm">geoconservation</a> communities to ensure that NPS abiotic resources are managed using the highest standards and best practices available. park scene mountains Series: Crystal Clear: A Call to Action In 2016, the nation celebrates the centennial of the National Park Service (NPS) as the steward of special places that represent our natural and cultural heritage. Many national parks were founded on the beauty and value of water. Since the preservation of the Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the National Park System has grown to include significant examples within majestic rivers, the Great Lakes, oceans and coasts, and other spectacular water resources. bright blue lake green islands in between Series: Park Air Profiles Clean air matters for national parks around the country. Photo of clouds above the Grand Canyon, AZ NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Virgin Islands National Park, Virgin Islands Each park-specific page in the NPS Geodiversity Atlas provides basic information on the significant geologic features and processes occurring in the park. Links to products from Baseline Geologic and Soil Resources Inventories provide access to maps and reports. [Site Under Development] coast and beach Data Manager Profile: Judd Patterson Meet Judd Patterson, Data Manager for the South Florida Caribbean Network. As a data manager, helps wrangle all the information that we collect on the health of our park resources. Judd is excited about the stories data can tell through time, whether that's looking back at park records from over a hundred years ago, or making sure the science we do in our parks today become time capsules for future generations to learn about how things were back in 2021. Data manager Judd Patterson smiles at the camera while holding camera equiment. The Job is His, Not Yours In the early 1950s, park wives continued to function as they had from the 1920s to the 1940s. The NPS still got Two For the Price of One, relying on women to keep monuments in the Southwest running, to give freely of their time and talents, to build and maintain park communities, and to boost morale among park staffs. With the creation of the Mission 66 Program to improve park facilities, the NPS found new ways to put some park wives to (unpaid) work. Man and woman with telescope Maritime Heritage at the Virgin Islands Based on archival research, several hundred shipwrecks are thought to be in the waters surrounding the U.S. Virgin Islands. Many ships wrecked on reefs and rocks. Many others were lost during hurricanes, the great tsunami of 1867, and other natural disasters. Other ships were attacked during times of war or inter-European rivalries to keep colonies from prospering. Commercial boat at St. Thomas Lost in Paradise: Placing the African Diaspora Individuals and social groups transitioned from enslavement to freedom on St. Croix in the Danish West Indies during the 18th century. The emergence of Crucian communities as people and as places was intimately linked to the formation of local identities and the negotiation of social and economic mobility within the contexts of Danish colonialism as much as the “Africanisms” that are often the focal point of diaspora studies. Buck Island’s Corals Get Relief from a Deadly Disease Through trial and error, outreach, and a small army of volunteer divers, scientists slow the progress of one of the Caribbean’s most lethal coral diseases—for now. A diver treats a large round brown coral with antibiotic Taking the Pulse of U.S. National Parks How do we know if parks are healthy? We measure their vital signs, of course! Across the country, there are 32 inventory and monitoring networks that measure the status and trends of all kinds of park resources. We're learning a lot after years of collecting data. Check out these articles written for kids and reviewed by kids in partnership with the international online journal Frontiers for Young Minds. A cartoon of a ranger taking the pulse of the Earth. Guide to the Thomas J. Allen Photograph Collection Finding aid for the Thomas J. Allen Photographs in the NPS History Collection. 50 Nifty Finds #16: Uniformity and Diversity A National Park Service (NPS) uniform weaves together the unique story of the person who wore it and the NPS mission. Sometimes the uniforms and their stories also reflect a larger history for the NPS and American society. That’s the case for the uniforms worn by Robert G. Stanton who began his career during the civil rights era and went on to become the first African American director of the NPS. Green NPS uniform coat, shirt, and tie on a mannequin.