Maho Bay is a long, narrow beach well protected from surf and just a few steps from North Shore Road. The sand is punctuated by overhanging sea grape trees, which create a sense of privacy and containment despite the length of the beach. Since it is calm, Maho Bay is a popular anchorage and also a good destination for children and unsure swimmers.

For years, most people assumed that Maho Bay was part of Virgin Islands National Park, but it was not. The bay and 419 acres of adjoining hillside were owned by descendants of Harvey Monroe Marsh, a St. John native who left the island in the 1960s. For more than a decade, the Park Service, the Friends of Virgin Islands National Park, and the Trust for Public Land worked to contact Marsh’s descendants (who owned shares, not parcels, of the land).

In September 2007 the efforts, plus millions of dollars in donations, paid off when the trust announced it had acquired a majority share of the estate for $19 million. Most of this land will be added to the national park.