Island Hopping in the Virgin Islands: St. John Trip, Hawksnest Beach, Underwater photos

Its always a great time to head to another island and enjoy a fun day in the sun. For those that dont know, the U.S. Virgin Islands are located just about 50 miles east of Puerto Rico, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. And not too far away are the British Virgin Islands, so its easy to explore new places with very little travel time.

This is the view from a hilltop on St. Thomas, looking east toward St. John, and two of the British Virgin Islands, Tortola and Jost Van Dyke.

We took the car ferry over to St. John. This is a great option because you dont have to worry about getting a taxi once you get over there, and it is very affordable. The ride takes about 45 minutes. You can get out of your vehicle and walk around, or even go upstairs and grab a beer or some cocktails if you like. You can also take the passenger ferry if you prefer, which only takes about 15 to 20 minutes.

Once on St. John, we drove to Hawksnest beach, which is not too far from the port where you are let off. This beach is beautiful, with perfect white sand and crystal clear blue waters.

The shore is lined with beautiful foliage that provides many shady corners to relax. This tree is a seagrape tree and can be found along most of the beaches in the Virgin Islands. They provide edible fruit also during the summertime.

It was now time to head in to the water with my Olympus G4 camera. The snorkeling is very nice on St. John with plenty of fish and other types of creatures to see without going too deep.

This bay is laced with large beautiful Elkhorn Coral.

Lots of colorful seafans also scatter the underwater landscape. They peacefully sway back and forth in the current.

These interesting looking fish are called Tilefish. They have beautiful markings, and they seem to be able to change colors.

This is a picture of a Stoplight parrotfish right next to a spiny sea urchin. You do not want to step on one of these urchins. It is very painful and difficult to remove the spines.

A school of beautiful yellow reef fish swim and eat amongst the different coral on the reef.

This brightly colored fish is a Blue Tang. This one was feeding along the reef and wasnt to scared of me while I took plenty photos of it.

This is another picture of a Tilefish. This one felt threatened and extended his dorsal spike straight up. This will make most predators think twice about trying to strike.

Out of nowhere a baby Hawksbill sea turtle appeared in front of me. This was one beautiful and graceful animal.

He didnt seem too bothered by me getting close and following him around for a while.

Overall I had a great day on St. John that day, as always. It is relaxing and refreshing. I hope you enjoyed this photo collection. I will be posting more photos and high quality content, so be sure to follow the blog and check back in. Peace and Blessings!