I’ve been saying for the last several years that I’m going to take a summer day trip to Block Island and this is the year I finally made it happen. I have been to Block Island once before, when I was quite young, but I don’t really have any memories of it so this felt like my very first visit to the island. Block Island is situated about 12 miles off the coast of Rhode Island and is about 7 miles long and 3 miles wide.
I set off from home at 5:30AM to give myself plenty of time to catch the 8:30AM ferry from Point Judith, Rhode Island. Point Judith is a mix of fishing vessels, seafood restaurants, ferry parking lots, and, of course, the ferry terminal itself. I opted for the traditional ferry (as opposed to the high speed one) because I couldn’t justify paying twice the price to shave 25 minutes off the trip. 55 minutes after leaving the mainland, I was stepping ashore on “The Block”.
The ferry delivers you to the middle of Old Harbor, the quaint little downtown area of New Shoreham. Here you will find souvenir shops, bike rentals, the acclaimed National Hotel, and plenty of food choices. My first stop was a couple of blocks away at Aldo’s Bakery where I enjoyed a ham and cheese croissant and iced latte while I got my bearings and made a plan for the day.
Next stop: bike rental. I’ve only ridden a bicycle a couple of times in the last few years, but biking is a way of life on Block Island and I decided to rent one for the day. I had been warned that the Island is hilly and the ride out to Mohegan Bluffs is mostly uphill. By the time I finally got there I was huffing and puffing and feeling muscles I didn’t even know I had. It almost did me in. Almost. Before arriving at the bluffs I stopped at 1661 Inn to see the exotic animals (think kangaroos, lemurs, and camels) and at Southeast Lighthouse to take in the views. The 141 stairs to the bottom of Mohegan Bluffs end before the bottom due to erosion, but the viewing platform provided stunning views in both directions.
When I left the bluffs, my choice was to keep going on the bicycle or head back into town. I decided to keep going and headed west and north to complete the loop back to the east side beaches. I decided I’d keep pushing myself and continued on to North Lighthouse, situated on the northern tip of Block Island, about 4 miles north of the main beach and Old Harbor area. The road ends before you get to the lighthouse and you can walk 10-15 minutes down the beach to the lighthouse itself. While there, I saw several baby seagulls waddling around with their (very protective) parents. Another 10 minutes past the lighthouse, at Sandy Point, one can find a colony of seals playing in the water and beached on the shore.
It was a long walk back to my bike and I was hot and tired. I walked the bike up the steepest part of the road back to town and turned off to visit New Harbor and enjoy a meal at The Oar. Blackened chicken tacos and one of their famous mudslides on the deck gave me my final wind for the day. I wandered around New Harbor then headed back to Old Harbor to return the bike, do some souvenir shopping, enjoy an ice cream, and catch the ferry back to Point Judith. All in all, it was a pleasant day trip and definitely worth the visit!
Traveling with Laura 