The Virgin Islands National Park is welcoming more visitors every year which is both good news and bad news. The good, of course, is that people are seeing the beauty of the island. The bad – parking at the beaches is limited.
This year, several efforts have been made to make more parking available along the north shore.
- At Hawksnest, additional spaces have been created by shifting some of the fences, according to Tidings, the latest publication from the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park.
- New parking spots are also under construction at Maho.
- The renovation of the waterfront Pavilion at Maho also includes new spots.
Both the Friends and the Park Superintendent, Mark Hardgrove, have spoken about the idea of a Cruz Bay-to-the-beach shuttle. But this has a good news/bad news element, too. Fewer people on the road to the beaches but – where do they park their cars in Cruz Bay to take advantage of the shuttle? It's not like there's lots of parking available there, either.
"In the meantime," say the Friends, "please park responsibly."
Why not use that (mostly-empty) parking lot by the car ferry dock? Run a shuttle from there that does a circuit right up the coast, starting at Solomon and going up to Maho, then looping back around. Every 30 or 60 minutes during high season…
Downtown Parking Garage…That where they would park! National Park Funding, Transportation/Highway Grant, Beautification Grant and other grants. Maybe the National Park could purchase the private property across from the lumber yard with the concrete pillars already poured and build the parking garage.
Then the Cruz Bay Ferry to the parks would work as there would be places to park, but then what about our artfully decorated taxi business! And if you have a car on the island you are going to continue to drive!
Seems to me with travel cut due to the economy, it might be best to leave things as they have been. SJ
There’s the nice new parking lot by the car ferry!
It’s gonna be nice!