If you look on the east side of the steep hill going down to Hawksnest Bay you should see an old stone stairway. This was once the entrance to a house that at one time belonged to Laurance Rockefeller. The house eventually became the property of the Virgin Islands National Park and was demolished. Nothing remains.

Today if you climb the staircase you’ll notice a trail leading through the bromiliads that takes you to the ruins of a stone structure that is said to have once belonged to Peter Duurloo, born on the island of Statia in 1675 and died on St. John 1746. I have also seen his name spelled Durloo and Durloe. The three islands, Henley Cay, Ramgoat Cay and Rata Cay are collectively known as the Durloe Cays and were undoubtedly named after him

Peter Durloo was one of the original planters who took possession of parcels of land on St. John when the Danes laid claim to the island in 1716. Durloo took up what is now some prime real estate, Cinnamon Bay and Caneel Bay, which he named for the bay rum trees (Caneel in Dutch) that were so plentiful there.

Charlotte Dean Stark, who wrote Some True Tales and Legends about Caneel Bay Trunk Bay and a Hundred and One Other Places on St. John, had this to say about Mr. Durloo:

“He was a colored man from one of the more southerly islands, probably Satia, where the Dutch were struggling to keep their foothold. It seems likely that most of the Dutch planters in St. Thomas were the colored sons of Hollanders who had been brought up by their fathers to learn the business, whatever it might be. Not many women went out with the original explorers who seized islands in the chain to the south of us.”

The site has been cleared by Jeff Chabot and his volunteers, but is unlikely to stay that way. So if you’re interested in a little history and don’t mind the uphill walk from the Hawksnest parking lot, you may want to pay a visit while the visiting is good.

Virgin Islands Ecotours

– Guests enjoying off-property Kayak, Hike & Snorkel Adventure inspire donations and receive complimentary one-year membership from local environmental group –

St. John, U.S.V.I. (January 2010) – Give and get back – that’s what Caneel Bay, A Rosewood Resort is offering guests who embark upon the Kayak, Hike & Snorkel Adventure with Virgin Islands Ecotours , one of the resort’s most popular off-property activities.

Through this new partnership, for each guest who signs-up for a multi-sport adventure with Caneel Bay partner Virgin Islands Ecotours, a donation is made to the local environmental group Friends of Virgin Islands National Park . In turn, guests receive a complimentary one-year membership to Friends – a $30 value with benefits to keep them engaged on continuing efforts to preserve the beauty that the resort calls home.

The value-oriented offer reflects Caneel Bay and Virgin Islands Ecotours common goal of building eco-tourism on St. John. Virgin Islands Ecotours, which offers kayak, hiking and snorkeling tours of Caneel Bay and the Mangrove Lagoon on St. Thomas, is a strong supporter the non-profit Friends of Virgin Islands National Park organization and its dedication to protecting and preserving the natural resources of the park.

Led by expert guides, the Kayak, Hike & Snorkel Adventure available at Caneel Bay explores crystal-blue waters teeming with reef life and sea turtles, beaches shaded by sea grape trees and coconut palms, and picturesque tropical forests.

Entrance to the Westin Resort

Entrance to the Caneel Bay Resort

Caneel Bay finally has its stone entrance/guard house/gate in place, wide going in, narrow going out.

For many months you could hear the chatter of French Creole and the pounding of sledges against stone, as the Haitian stone workers toiled at the front entrance to Caneel in the construction of this impressive stone guardhouse. During the construction, traffic was diverted to a dirt track around the site.

Now, as before, a guard sits in an open structure in order to control the ingress and egress of visitors, taxis, vendors and guests who arrive to the property by road. Now, as before, entrance to the resort is barely restricted. Visitors can park in the visitor parking lot and go to the beach, shops or restaurants and vendors can head to the employee parking lot where they can enter though a further security check.

Being that nothing much has changed, except the nature of the checkpoint, what was the purpose of this project? Anyone who has had stonework done here locally knows the high cost of such construction? Why lay out this kind of money, when times are tough in hospitality industry? Beats me.

Security? I doubt it. A guard on duty, is a guard on duty. Unless we subscribe to the “Three Little Pigs” syndrome, it won’t make a difference if they sit in a house of straw, a house of sticks or a house of stone.

The only thing I can come up with is an effort to make a statement. The vast majority of Caneel Bay guests arrive by sea and spend their whole stay on the property, so they’ll never even pass through his gate. The statement, therefore, must be meant for locals who now have to face this intimidating structure at the entrance to the resort.

The Westin on the other side of the island seems much more welcoming and just as secure.

The Caneel Hill Spur Trail

Bench on the Caneel Hill Trail

It was a good day for photography and I decided to take some photos from a few popular overlooks on the North Shore. The first location I wanted to try was the viewing tower at the summit of Caneel Hill some 900 feet above the blue Caribbean below.

I began my hike on the Caneel Hill Spur Trail at the top of the hill leading out of Cruz Bay, just past the Asolare Restaurant and across the North Shore Road from the National Park housing complex. Heading up and south that trail connects to the Caneel Hill Trail, which leads to the summit of Caneel Hill and onward to Margaret Hill and ending at Caneel Bay. By beginning here instead of at Cruz Bay where the Caneel Hill Trail begins, I saved myself a bit of climbing and gained more time for more photos. As you near the summit there’s a rustic wooden bench from where I took my first photos:

view from the bench near the summit of Caneel Hill

view from the bench near the summit of Caneel Hill

From the bench, it’s only a short distance more to the summit of Caneel Hill, where volunteers constructed a wonderful viewing tower after the first one was destroyed by Hurricane Marilyn in 1995.

From the tower there’s sweeping views of the north shore with all the islands and cays from St. Thomas to the British Virgin Islands.

On the south you can see into Cruz Bay and get a view of the southern coastline. On a good day, one a bit better than Saturday’s beautiful day, you can see the island of St. Croix in the south some forty miles away.

The following photos were taken from the tower:

View of St. Thomas from the tower atop Caneel Hill

View of Lovango Cay from the tower atop Caneel Hill

View of Jost Van Dyke from the tower atop Caneel Hill

View of Cruz Bay from the tower atop Caneel Hill

Finishing up my photography atop the tower, I headed back down the trail. On the way down I saw a turpentine tree with the sun shining through a piece of its peeling bark. I shot that photo and continued on down the trail.

The next stop was the Caneel Bay Overlook on the North Shore Road and then on to the most popular overlook – the Trunk Bay Overlook

Turpentine Tree on Caneel Hill Trail

Caneel Bay Overlook

Trunk Bay Overlook

View of Johnson's Reef From the Trunk Bay Overlook

It has just come to our attention that, for the first time in my memory, Caneel Bay will be closing down for the months of September and October as a cost cutting measure. Employees will be earning a little less and management will be seeing less perks. I also heard that there won’t be anymore Sunday Brunch. Even the rich and famous are watching their wallets

Now September and October are the slow months, so it kind of makes sense, and perhaps the hotel can use that time to take care of general maintenance without disturbing guests.

But September and October, the now feared hurricane months weren’t always that slow. Remember that from the 1920s until Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the Virgin Islands hadn’t suffered a major hurricane. Hurricanes weren’t in people’s minds. For example, Foxy’s well attended Wooden Boat Race was held on Labor Day, the height of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Although September and October weren’t great, they weren’t that bad either. Even after Hugo, the season wasn’t effected that much, but after Marilyn in 1995, this changed and Hurricane paranoia made September and October super slow months. Now with the stock market sliding and credit drying up, we can probably expect some super-duper slow summers.

Maybe there’s an upside to this slow down. The red hot real estate market, the building frenzy, and the invasion of the EDC gang really took a toll on the traditional St. John lifestyle. The perception of St. John as a laid back  easy going island was replaced by one of a Beverly Hills of the Caribbean, millionaire island, and not without reason.

So, if we can survive the financial blows, maybe we can slow down a little, get to the beach more often, walk through town slowly for a change, and shoot the breeze a little longer with our friends and neighbors. We’ll see how it all plays out. Hopefully, in the words of the late Bob Marley, “every little t’ing gonna be alright,”