Gold Rock Beach

Framed Coral Reef Print, Get It Here


Gold Rock Beach Postcards, Get Them Here




Gold Rock Beach Pin, Get Them Here

Gold Rock Beach, Grand Bahama Island...Bridge Repaired!

Last year when we took a day to check out Lucayan Nation Park, the bridge to Gold Rock Beach was out of service. Left with no other option, we took the very long trek through the mangroves in order to get to the beach.

The hike is not for the weary though, because it is one hell of a long hike, however the hike through the mangroves is beautiful. If you have the energy definitely take the right path to Gold Rock Beach.

The bridge during our 2009 visit though was back in order, and the newly repaired bridge to the beach is beautiful.

You still get to see the Mangroves, but you won't be as up close and personal had you taken the long hike through them. Along the way you will run into some tropical friends, such as this lovely spider.
Don't be afraid of them, they are not harmful to humans at all. They may get big, may look scary, but they are harmless.

Gold Rock Beach has 2 paths to get to it. Go to the right for the jungle like trek, and head straight for a faster hike to the beach.

Before coming up the small hike through the path in the woods, I wondered if Gold Rock Beach stood just as stunning as she was last year. To my shock, my jaw once again dropped. The beach never fails to stun. As soon as we came up through the woody path, our eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. The beach was still pristine, still decadent, still perfect, still the definition of pure paradise.



If you have been following my blog, than you likely already know that Gold Rock Beach was a location where Pirates of the Caribbean filmed. It's no wonder why, the beach is one of the best beaches I have ever seen in my life.

The sands are pure white, the colors of the water fade into dark blues, greens, turquoise and emerald, a sight that will take you breath away.

On the beach the large driftwood trees still remain. They however add to the breathtaking scenery.

At low tide the sea leaves behind traces of its own natural art.




If you are on Grand Bahama Island, even for a short period of time, you cannot miss Gold Rock Beach. Be sure however to check your tides, you want to hit Gold Rock Beach at low tide in order to embrace it in all its glory.


Snorkeling at Gold Rock is not that fantastic however, the beach itself is pretty lifeless, and you may only come across schools of small fish, crabs, and sting rays. The water here is very open though, which means that sharks can quickly come in, take a bite, and pass back out to sea in seconds. The best snorkeling is out in the distance at the 'Gold Rock'. You do not want to go alone though, because the water is very open and you are quite a ways away from help for if anything bad were to happen.

The Gold Rock features a nice formation of corals, and lots of fish can be found here. The swim is far though, so make sure you are up for it, if you do decide to do it.

Snorkeling though will not impress you as much as the beach itself will as a whole. It is the definition of beautiful, paradise, and tropical wonders.

Many Thanks

To Bahamas.com for linking my blog to their incredible site, it's an honor. The song you hear playing is dedicated to them, and all of the wonderful locals who made my trip to their gorgeous island so memorable. I'll see you again this September.

Some Beautiful Beach Photos I Took While On Grand Bahama Island

-Beautiful shot of Paradise Cove, taken from the waters

-We stumbled upon these neat sand formations on our walk to a fry shack from Viva Wyndham. As mentioned earlier in a post, you can walk, or swim to this crab/fry shack from the resort. It's quite a ways away, but if you are snorkeling down from the resort to the left, you will eventually come across the adorable eating spot for some Conch or Bahamian lobster.

-Although I added this picture already, I wanted to add it again, because someone pointed out a water spout in the distance! Shot taken at Gold Rock Beach

-A nice sunny day at Viva Wyndham. My fella buying something from one of the local beach vendors who walk through the beach at random times.

-Just before the sun set, Viva Wyndham

-Another balcony view from our room at Viva Wyndham

-Paradise Cove, to the right of the beach

-Another shot at Paradise Cove. The storm was passed by then.

-The water at Paradise Cove was like a pool

-I snapped this shot at Gold Rock Beach, the place was vacant, all except for these land birds

-A gorgeous arial shot I took just as the storm died down

-A storm passed through on our second day! It looks scary, but like I said, the storms here pass through so quickly and are over in close to 40 minutes-if that.

-This photo was taken early morning at Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach, out in the distance you can see my fella snorkeling the reefs.

-A shot of our morning landing spot. A lounge chair, some shells, and white powdery sands.

-This is a photo I took while at Paradise Cove/AKA Deadman's Reef. A quick storm passed through as you can see the darker clouds. Rain passes through quickly so don't even worry about it. The rain is warm here, and if you are in the water you won't even notice it.

Gold Rock Beach, Grand Bahama Island

See the websites main photo? That's the gem that was nestled across the street from Lucayan National Park. If you pull up at the park, you honestly would not even know it was there, unless you previously searched for it online. The locals may also mention it to you, and if you are lucky, hopefully your cab driver mentions it, because there is no sign.

The sign is hidden down a very small narrow dirt path, surrounded by tropical plants, bushes and flowers of every kind. If you look closely across the street, you may be able to see the path, but it's a bit over grown.

Once we found the little path, it took us to a huge green rock that stated GOLD ROCK BEACH. You now know you are on the right path.

You have 2 options. For us though, we had only one option because the small bridge that would have taken us straight to the beach was out of service, and blocked off. We had to go right, and follow the path that is called Mangroves.

The Mangroves is pretty tedious, especially if it is blazing hot out. We actually were a little lucky, and a little unlucky because it began to rain, and we had to be very, very careful walking the Mangroves, because it is a long, long path through marsh land. Some areas of the path are nothing more than puddles of 2 inch water, which would break off into sections of a long narrow plank. You have to be very careful on the planks, because there are no railings, and if you fall in, you fall into water. The water is not deep, but there are many bushes growing from the water that could hurt you.

You cannot help but think a big alligator is going to come up to grab you. It's really phenomenal the whole trek through the Mangroves because you will feel like you are on some sort of safari. If you stop to take in the surroundings you will sometimes see a large crab scurrying about. You may also see a bunch of spiders.

Once the path ends, you are not quite to the beach yet... but you will feel the anticipation building up.

You are instead taken to a dark overgrown area of tropical woods, with huge trees. Looking around we saw so many different types of enormous bugs, beetles, and butterflies. A huge cicada the size of my hand was actually dead and stuck in a spiders web. A sight I thought I'd only ever see on the Discovery Channel.

A few feet through the woods you come up a small dirt hill, and just below the hill, you will find miles and miles of the secluded perfect white sand beach. The water is probably the clearest and most beautiful waters we found on the entire island.

I stood up on the hill and took in what I was seeing. Gold Rock beach was the absolute description of Paradise. Here I felt a trillion miles away from home. Here it was as if I had found a hidden gem that nobody else had ever seen. The beach is untouched. Not a footstep in the sand... not a soul.

Gold Rock can be seen out in the distance. If it is low tide, and you have your snorkel gear you can swim out to it. We though were hesitant seeing that if anything were to happen, we would be miles away from help, so we sort of just stuck to the shore, and snorkeled a few feet out. The water when we arrived was nearly low tide. Low tide is awesome because the sands create a work of art that is truly not to be missed!

The waters weren't teaming with life here though. We didn't see many fish, but we did happen to spot a bunch of gigantic crabs swimming about the white sandy bottom of the sea.

Gold Rock Beach is also a must if you are a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean. Some parts of the film were actually done here on this beach. There used to be an actual ship from the movie on the beach, but it has since been removed due to hurricanes.

You can see from the beach that the hurricanes that hit the island a few years back have managed to rip some huge trees right from the roots. However if you really look at this disaster, and what it has left on Gold Rock Beach, you will truly look at it like a beautiful disaster, because all of the fallen trees have added to the scenery. The trees have become dried out gorgeous stumps of drift wood, and it is simply stunning.

Gold Rock Beach is not to be missed! You cannot go to Grand Bahama Island, and not see Gold Rock Beach. The only visitors you will find here will be the pack of little birds that scurry about on the shore, checking you out while you take a swim.