Yes - the National Park is CLOSED meaning all hiking trails and all beaches in the park (Cinnamon,Trunk, Hawksnest, Maho, Francis, Saltpond, Annaberg etc) are barricaded and have police "Do Not Cross" tape across the areas also not boats are allowed in park waters !!!

The rangers are kicking people off the beaches and out of the ocean and reportedly will be ticketing cars if at trail heads and in parking lots if they cross the baracaides - NOT fun for anyone here. I feel for all the visitors.

Pia

So sad and shocking. I cannot imagine vacationing there right now. Especially sad for first time visitors but also for locals. I knew that Trunk and Cinnamon would likely be affected but didn't realize all the others even thought I know that 2/3 of the island is national park. It has to be costing more to keep people off these beaches than to do nothing. This is most of the island. I would be pulling my hair out if I were there right now.

Rose

See this link for info on closures: http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2013/09/30/looming-government-shutdown-will-impact-vi-parks-courts

According to the article:

"According to FitzGerald, the park will keep people off its property because if people got injured while visiting a beach or other facility while the park was closed, the park would be liable."

Bummer. I know Mr. Fitzgerald. Cool guy, I don't envy him.

The beaches are back open as of this morning:

http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2013/10/06/vi-national-park-beaches-open

Wonderful!!! Good for the person who checked into this further and got the beaches open.

Rose