Annaly Bay Tide Pools, St. Croix

The Annaly Bay Tide Pools are located on the northside of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

There are 2 ways to get there. You can take a hiking trail or drive the dirt road with a 4-wheel drive vehicle.

We chose to drive there because we purposely rented a Jeep Wrangler with 4-wheel drive from Hertz when we arrived in St. Croix. 

If you decide to hike, it's about 2 miles each way. The trail begins at the Renaissance St. Croix Carambola Beach Resort. The guard at the entry gate will tell you where to park and where the trail begins.

We used Google Maps and it led us right to the tide pools. When we were leaving, we didn't have service so we went by memory back and eventually we got service again.

The dirt road has really big ruts from the rain. We went when it was dry, but it was still a difficult drive. I drove it in 4-wheel drive low and the Jeep handled great. 

There was one hill I went up that I could barely see over the hood as it was really steep. This is such a fun drive!

Once you reach the rocky beach of Annaly Bay, you will hike over to the tide pools.

I highly recommend wearing water shoes as you will be walking on lots of rocks and hiking through some water too.

When you reach the tide pools, you will need to climb some rocks to get in. We did it easily, but you should be aware of that.

There are multiple tide pools that you can explore.

This is a beautiful bay and after handing out at the tide pools, we ate our lunch that we had brought in our cooler. The views are just amazing!

This is the first turnoff to go from a paved road to a semi-paved road.

This is the 2nd turnoff where you go from a semi-paved road to a dirt trail.

When you see these rusted out cars, you want to go to the right.

This is where the road starts to get rough and needs 4-wheel drive.

Once you exit from the trail you can park on the rocky beach.

This is the view looking toward the Annaly Bay Tide Pools.

There are some rocks piled up to help climb up to the tide pools.

Once you climb over, you can see the tide pools.

This was such a fun trip. These tide pools are amazing!

Annaly Bay Tide Pools Map:

(Click on the map above to go to a Google Maps larger view.)

Parking Fee: FREE

Entrance Fee: FREE

Total cost: $0

These are the checklist items I recommend:

• Bring a plenty of water and some snacks
• Bring a hat to keep the sun off of your face.
• Bring Water Shoes as it's really rocky.
• 4-wheel drive vehicle for the dirt road. (Go when the roads are dry)