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50 free Virgin Islands National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Virgin Islands National Park trivia quiz covers the Caribbean park that takes up about 60 percent of the island of St. John, plus thousands of acres of reef and nearly all of Hassel Island off St. Thomas. It ranges across the famous beaches (Trunk Bay and its underwater snorkel trail, Cinnamon Bay, Maho, Honeymoon and Salt Pond), the Reef Bay and Bordeaux Mountain trails, the Taino petroglyphs, the coral reefs and the wildlife from bats to wild donkeys. There is plenty of history too: the Taino, Columbus's 'eleven thousand virgins', the Danish planters and the sugar mills at Annaberg and Catherineberg, the 1733 uprising led by Breffu, emancipation in 1848, the 1917 sale to the United States, Laurance Rockefeller's 1956 gift that created the park, the 2001 coral reef monument, and the twin Category 5 hurricanes of 2017. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, so it works for a beach-day game or a serious park-nerd challenge. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Biscayne, Everglades and US National Parks quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Virgin Islands National Park covers about 60 percent of which island?
St. John
The park covers roughly 60% of St. John, plus more than 5,500 acres of surrounding sea; it also holds nearly all of a small island in Charlotte Amalie harbour, off St. Thomas.
Q 02Which port town is the gateway to the park and home to its visitor centre?
Cruz Bay
Cruz Bay, on St. John's west end, has the park visitor centre a short walk from the ferry dock; passenger ferries arrive hourly from Red Hook on St. Thomas.
Q 03Which member of a famous American family donated the land that created the park in 1956?
Laurance Rockefeller
Laurance Rockefeller, through his Jackson Hole Preserve, gave about 5,000 acres to create the park in 1956, on condition the land never be developed; he kept the land under his own resort.
Q 04Which resort did Laurance Rockefeller open in 1956 on St. John's north shore?
Caneel Bay
Caneel Bay opened in 1956 as the flagship of Rockefeller's Rockresorts, on north-shore land he kept out of his park gift; the land passed to the park in 1983 under a retained-use estate that ran to 2023.
Q 05Which park beach, often voted among the world's best, has an underwater snorkelling trail?
Trunk Bay
Trunk Bay's underwater snorkel trail has plaques along the reef identifying the corals and fish; with a snack bar, showers and lifeguards it is the busiest beach in the park.
Q 06Trunk Bay is named after which animal, locally called a 'trunk'?
Leatherback turtle
Leatherback turtles are called 'trunks' in the Virgin Islands, after their ridged, leathery shells; the beach and the islet Trunk Cay just offshore share the name.
Q 07Which beach in the park hosts its only campground?
Cinnamon Bay
Cinnamon Bay, on the north shore, holds the park's only campground; across the road a short boardwalk loop passes the ruins of a sugar factory.
Q 08Which beach with sand and seagrass bottom is the park's best spot to see sea turtles and stingrays?
Maho Bay
Maho Bay's shallow, calm water over seagrass beds draws green sea turtles and southern stingrays; the Trust for Public Land bought the 415-acre Estate Maho Bay and later transferred it to the park.
Q 09Which one-mile path leads from Cruz Bay to Honeymoon Beach?
Lind Point
The Lind Point Trail starts behind the Cruz Bay visitor centre, climbs to a lookout over the harbour, then drops to palm-shaded Honeymoon Beach about a mile away.
Q 10What is the highest point on St. John, reached by a steep trail from Little Lameshur Bay?
Bordeaux Mountain
Bordeaux Mountain, at 1,277 feet, is St. John's highest point; the Bordeaux Mountain Trail climbs steeply from Little Lameshur Bay, and the densely forested summit offers no view.
Q 11Which strenuous hike passes sugar-mill ruins and ancient petroglyphs on its way down to the sea?
Reef Bay
The Reef Bay Trail drops about 2.2 miles from Centerline Road past the Reef Bay sugar factory ruins to the shore, with a spur to the petroglyphs beside a freshwater pool; the climb back up is the strenuous part.
Q 12The park's rock carvings near a waterfall in the south-shore valley were made by which people?
Taino
Artefacts on the north shore show a Taino presence on the island from about AD 700 until the late 15th century.
Q 13Which historic district protects a partially restored sugar factory and windmill east of Mary's Point?
Annaberg
Q 21Which two Category 5 hurricanes hit the park in September 2017?
Irma and Maria
Irma struck on 6 September 2017 and Maria followed on 19–20 September, both at Category 5 strength; visitor numbers collapsed to 112,287 in 2018, though parts of the park had reopened in December 2017.
Q 22Which president created the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument off St. John in January 2001?
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton proclaimed the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument on 17 January 2001, days before leaving office; it covers 12,708 acres of submerged federal land around St. John, including Hurricane Hole.
Q 23After 2005 bleaching, USGS scientists found Hurricane Hole corals growing in what unexpected place?
Annaberg, east of Mary's Point on the north shore, was one of St. John's largest sugar producers; its partially restored windmill, factory and slave quarters date from the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Q 14Which European power colonised St. John, sending planters over from St. Thomas in the 1710s?
Denmark
Denmark's West India Company sent about 20 planters from St. Thomas to found a settlement at Coral Bay; Britain dropped its rival claim in 1762, and Danish rule lasted until the islands were sold to the United States.
Q 15In what year did the United States buy the Virgin Islands from their European owner?
1917
The transfer took place on 31 March 1917 under a treaty signed in 1916; Washington wanted a naval base to keep Germany out of the Caribbean, and in return recognised Denmark's claim to all of Greenland.
Q 16How much did the U.S. pay for the Virgin Islands in 1917?
$25 million
The United States paid Denmark $25 million in gold for St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix under the 1916 treaty; residents became U.S. citizens in 1927 but cannot vote for president.
Q 17Which enslaved woman from Ghana led the 1733 uprising on St. John?
Breffu
Breffu, a woman enslaved on St. John, was one of the principal leaders of the 1733 revolt; rather than be recaptured, she and more than a dozen others shot themselves before French troops reached them in 1734.
Q 18The 1733 rebels on St. John came mainly from which African kingdom in present-day Ghana?
Akwamu
Most rebels were Akwamu, whose Gold Coast kingdom had just fallen, leaving many of its elite sold into slavery; they seized the Coral Bay fort and held most of St. John for months before French troops crushed them.
Q 19Troops from which French colony were brought in to end the 1733 rebellion?
Martinique
French troops from Martinique landed in 1734 and ended the revolt after Danish efforts had failed; it had begun in November 1733 when rebels smuggled cane bills into the Coral Bay fort inside bundles of wood.
Q 20In what year were the enslaved people of the Danish West Indies emancipated?
1848
Governor-General Peter von Scholten proclaimed emancipation on 3 July 1848 after enslaved people on St. Croix rose up; St. John's last sugar factory, at Reef Bay, closed in 1908.
On submerged mangrove roots
USGS biologist Caroline Rogers found more than 30 coral species growing on submerged red mangrove prop roots in Hurricane Hole, where shade and cooler water helped them survive the 2005 bleaching that devastated reefs nearby.
Q 24Roughly how much coral cover did the U.S. Virgin Islands lose after the 2005 bleaching event?
About 60%
Bleaching in 2005, followed by white-plague disease, killed about 60% of the coral cover in the U.S. Virgin Islands within two years.
Q 25What is the only native land mammal in the park?
Bats
Bats, including fruit bats, are the park's only native land mammals; donkeys, deer, mongooses, pigs and goats all arrived with people.
Q 26Which introduced animals wander the park's roads and beaches, descendants of plantation-era work stock?
Wild donkeys
Wild donkeys, descended from animals that hauled cane and goods in plantation days, roam St. John's roads and beaches; the park asks visitors not to feed or touch them.
Q 27Which small isle off Charlotte Amalie harbour is almost entirely within the park?
Hassel
Hassel Island sits in Charlotte Amalie harbour off St. Thomas and was a peninsula until a channel was cut in the 1860s; most of it joined the park in 1978, with British-era fort ruins and the Creque Marine Railway.
Q 28Roughly how many acres of land and sea does the park encompass?
About 14,700
The park totals about 14,700 acres (14,689), of which roughly 5,600 are submerged; its authorised boundary encloses around three-quarters of St. John, but private in-holdings such as Peter Bay cut the park's land to about 60%.
Q 29Which path from Salt Pond Bay runs down a dry, rocky peninsula to the southernmost point of St. John?
Ram Head
The Ram Head Trail runs about a mile from Salt Pond Bay over a cactus-studded, rocky peninsula to Ram Head, St. John's southernmost point, where cliffs drop some 200 feet to the sea.
Q 30Which strait separates St. John's north-east shore from the British Virgin Islands?
The Narrows
The Narrows, a strait less than two miles wide, separates St. John's north-east shore from Great Thatch and the western British Virgin Islands; Pillsbury Sound lies on the other side, between St. John and St. Thomas.