Sandy Point St. Croix reopens to visitors at the start of September, and the timing is close to perfect. The seasonal closure that protects nesting leatherback turtles lifts just as the sea settles into its calmest, clearest stretch of the year. This year the reward was starfish, hundreds of them, in water shallow enough to stand in.

 

What Sandy Point St. Croix Is Like in September

September water here is a different animal from winter water. The sea is often calmer, and visibility can be excellent. Because of that, you do not need a full snorkel setup to see something worth the drive.

Over Labor Day weekend this year, the starfish were lined up across the bottom in clusters. Six together in one spot, five larger ones nearby, then smaller ones scattered around them. Some were blond. Others were brown, orange, or red. The water was clear enough, and they sat close enough to shore, that people floating on rafts or simply standing in the shallows could look down and see them.

That is the part worth emphasizing. You do not need equipment or an expedition. Instead, you can be doing almost nothing at all and still find yourself looking into another world.

 

The beauty of Sandy Point

The Seasonal Closure Is the Whole Point

Sandy Point St. Croix is a National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The beach closes from roughly mid-April through August each year so that leatherback sea turtles can nest undisturbed.

Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtles in the world, and Sandy Point is one of the places they return to. During nesting season the refuge runs guided sea turtle nesting and hatching observation, and thousands of visitors come each year to see it. If you are here in the spring and the beach itself is closed, that program is the thing to ask about instead.

That closure is not an inconvenience to plan around. On the contrary, it is the reason the place still looks the way it does. Because access is limited and development is not permitted, Sandy Point has stayed a long, wide, undeveloped beach in a Caribbean where that combination is getting rare.

Access rules and hours do change, and the refuge does not publish a full schedule online. Therefore, confirm current access with the refuge directly at (340) 773-4554 before you drive out.

What to Bring, and What You Cannot

Sandy Point takes a bit more planning than a beach with a bar. There is no bar. In addition, there is very little natural shade.

If you bring a sun shade, you cannot drive stakes into the sand, so bring a bucket to fill and weigh it down instead. The sand itself is not the powdery kind. It is coarse and heavy, and it sticks to everything. Carry out everything you carry in, because no one is coming behind you to clean up.

As a result, the most reliable approach is a light one. Pack a couple of drinks, put the essentials in one bag, bring a cooler only if you are feeling ambitious, and go straight into the water.

Look, Do Not Touch

Starfish are why people are driving to Sandy Point St. Croix this month, so this part matters.

Sea stars breathe through their skin and through structures on their undersides. Lifting one out of the water for a photograph stresses the animal, and repeated handling can kill it. They are also slow to replace. In other words, a cluster that took years to build can be thinned out over one busy weekend.

So look at them. Float over them. Take the picture from above the surface. Then leave them exactly where they are. The refuge asks visitors to give wildlife room, and that request covers the seafloor as much as it covers the sand.

Seasonal Rhythm Is Part of Living Here

People considering a move to St. Croix usually ask what there is to do. That is an incomplete question. The better one is what the year actually feels like.

Here, the year has a shape. Sandy Point St. Croix closes in the spring and reopens in September. Meanwhile, the water is at its clearest in some months and its roughest in others. Mango season arrives and then it is over. Carnival lands when it lands. Residents plan around all of it, much the way people elsewhere plan around snow or foliage.

That rhythm also shapes where people want to live. Buyers who organize their weekends around the water often weigh the west end differently than buyers who want to be near Christiansted for work, restaurants, and the boardwalk. Neither choice is the correct one. Rather, they are different versions of the same island, and the difference tends to show up in how often you actually end up in the water.

Newcomers who learn that rhythm tend to settle in quickly. However, the ones who expect every option to be available every day of the year often find island life frustrating rather than freeing.

Getting There

Sandy Point sits at the southwestern tip of the island, south of Frederiksted. Consequently, it is an easy afternoon from most of St. Croix and a very short one from the west end. A firsthand account of this particular September afternoon, starfish and all, is over at Living St. Croix.

If the version of your year that includes a September drive to Sandy Point St. Croix sounds like the right one, our team keeps a current view of St. Croix homes, condos, and land for sale. We are always glad to talk through which parts of the island put you closest to the water you actually want to be in.