Nestled in a valley near the center of the south side of St. John, there is a grotto of freshwater, a sort of naturally occurring cistern. Near the water’s edge is a collection of petroglyphs depicting what appear to be faces and symbolic shapes. The petroglyphs were made by the Taíno people, who inhabited the Greater Antilles and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time Columbus’ invasion began in 1492. This place of reliable freshwater was clearly important to the Taíno. It was to this most remote part of Virgin Islands National Park that our adventures would take us on Tuesday, March 22 [2022], our last full day on St. John.

Those Pearly-Eyed Thrashers were at it again that morning. So most of us were awake by 6:30am. Nick wasn’t, and he was talking in his sleep, which amused the rest of us.

It was an overcast morning, and we saw a rainbow from our eco-tent. It was over the part of the island we were headed to. Maybe this time we’d make it to Lameshur Bay Trailhead, after our aborted attempt on Sunday.

After a little breakfast, we piled into the Santa Fe at 9am.

When we reached the gigantic pothole that we’d encountered two days earlier, we pulled over as far as we could off the road, climbed out of the car, and started walking.

The walk to the parking area and trailhead at Great Lameshur Bay was really only fifteen minutes from where we’d left the car.

As one point, though, it rained on us. Oh well, it was a good hiking day rather than beach day.

Jimmy wasn’t interested in hiking, so Sean, Josh, Nick, and I set him up in a hammock under some sea grapes, left some of our stuff with him, and set out.

We had walked 0.6 miles from the car. Lameshur Bay Trail is 1.5 miles one way to its intersection with Reef Bay Trail. Then the petroglyphs are 0.4 miles further on, and Reef Bay Sugar Factory is 0.4 miles down Reef Bay Trail from the junction. Adding also a short detour to the ruins of the Reef Bay estate house, the total day’s hiking was about 6.1 miles.

The forest was steamy and humid as the sun evaporated the rainwater.

Not very far along, we reached the shattered stump of an enormous tree.

Sean and I remembered this tree from nine years earlier.

The guys had us recreate the photo from our previous trip when the tree had still been alive (below).

After a flat stretch, the trail began climbing the ridge between the Lameshur area and Reef Valley. The trail climbs from (literal) sea level to 467 feet up on the ridge. So our total vertical gain for the day would be 934 feet.

The other way to access Reef Bay and the petroglyphs is from Reef Bay Trail, which starts high on Centerline Road and descends more than 800 feet to sea level, but then it’s a climb back up the 800 feet all at once. And going in from Lameshur, the views are more varied.

There were few other hikers making the trek that morning.

Up at the top of the ridge, we were greeted by a colorful wild pineapple and views into Reef Valley. Well done, gents!

Here the forest changed subtly. It felt like there were more sabal palms and pineapples on this western side of the ridge.

Out in the distance, we could see past the edge of the National Park boundary to where the farthest extent of Cruz Bay and development on the western side of St. John reaches Reef Bay.

As we neared the valley floor, I was worried that we’d missed the spur trail to the estate house, but we hadn’t.

A couple dozen yards further on, there was the spur. Up we went.

Once virtually all of Reef Valley would have been planted in sugar cane with the plantation owner’s estate house looming above it all.

Now it was decaying away, covered with tangles of Coral Vine.

Nick and Josh joked that this could be the spot for Jimmy’s and his boyfriend’s plantation wedding.

After exploring the ruin, we continued on and rejoined the main trail.

Down on the valley floor, we turned right at the junction with Reef Bay Trail. Then we took a quick left onto Petroglyph Trail. As we walked along, we noticed the remnants of stone walls in the forest.

Just as we approached the grotto with the petroglyphs, a large group of tourists was leaving the area.

This meant we had the Taíno petroglyphs to ourselves.

If Spanish accounts are reliable, St. John was uninhabited at the time of Columbus’ invasion. There were Taíno peoples on other islands, but apparently not at that precise time on St. John. It’s difficult to date petroglyphs generally, but these are certainly from some point before 1492.

The Taíno spoke a language in the same family as the Arawak peoples of the Amazon Basin in South America. It is likely that they moved into the Caribbean islands from mainland South America by island hopping up the Lesser Antilles and eventually populating areas as far as Florida and the Bahamas. Their migration into the Caribbean may have begun 2,500 years ago. The islands, though, have been populated for at least 7,000 years. The Taíno would have displaced or absorbed earlier groups.

Colonialist historians had long assumed that the Taíno people were simply wiped out by the Spanish through disease, massacre, and enslavement. But recent DNA studies show that a high proportion of residents of the Greater Antilles share Taíno (and other Indigenous) DNA.

In Puerto Rico, in particular, there is a reclamation of Taíno heritage distinct from Spanish, African, and other Indigenous traditions.

Read some of my further musings on encountering these petroglyphs on our first trip.

It was peaceful at the grotto, with only the breeze, an occasional bird call, and the trickle of water disturbing the silence.

When another group of visitors—likely lesbians—eventually arrived, we took our leave so that they could also experience the peace of this important place.

At the junction with Reef Bay Trail, we turned right and gently descended to sea level and the site of the ruins of Reef Bay Sugar Factory.

This factory was the latest operational sugar mill on St. John, with opertaions having ceased following a fatal accident in 1908. The factory was once powered by its animal mill, but was converted to steam power sometime after 1861. The remnants of the steam engine are still largely intact.

– National Park Service

We explored in and among the ruins of the sugar factory, which were much less disintegrated than the ruins at Annaberg.

Steam power after 1861. Again, just as at Annaberg and throughout the Caribbean, the Industrial Revolution contributing to the reluctant emancipation of enslaved people.

We had cell service at the factory site, so before we started the hike back, we got hold of Jimmy and let him know we were on our way.

On the way back up, Nick, who is generally a fast walker, pushed on ahead and waited for us at the trail’s high point.

We were grateful both for the breeze and the overcast skies on what would otherwise have been a very humid hike. We were a little horrified to see other visitors picking their way along the trail in sandals. Yikes!

On the other end of the spectrum was a trail runner. Also, yikes!

Back at the trailhead, we checked out the ruins of the Lameshur Bay estate house.

We didn’t linger too long, though, because we were hungry.

We collected Jimmy and decided it was time to eat after our hike.

We walked back to the car around 1pm. All told, it was a good four hour adventure.

Now it was time to grab a quick lunch at Miss Lucy’s.