Beaches · West End

Sandy Point Beach

Sandy Point is unlike every other beach in this directory in one specific way: most of the year, you can't go. It's a 383-acre National Wildlife Refuge on St. Croix's southwestern tip, established in 1984 specifically to protect nesting habitat for endangered leatherback sea turtles — the largest leatherback nesting site in the United States, alongside hawksbill and green turtle activity. Public access closes for roughly five months during nesting and hatching season, then reopens on weekends only, 10am to 4pm, from around September through March. Visitors who time it right describe it consistently as one of the most beautiful, least developed beaches in the USVI: a long, wide stretch of white sand with no coral breakwater, easy swimming, and almost no facilities or shade, so sun protection matters more here than almost anywhere else on the island. Reviewers who've attended a guided night turtle watch — arranged in advance through local conservation groups — describe it as a genuinely rare wildlife experience, though photography of the turtles themselves isn't permitted. It's also a minor film location: the closing beach scene of The Shawshank Redemption was shot here.