4 Best Sights in Block Island, Rhode Island

The dramatic 200-foot clay cliffs along Mohegan Trail, one of the island's top sights, offer a craggy beauty not found anywhere else in New England. On a clear day you can see all the way to Montauk Point on Long Island. The bluffs can be enjoyed from street level, but to access the beach below requires descending a steep set of 141 stairs that lead to the bottom. The cove to the west has a narrow strip of secluded sandy beach, with wave action that attracts surfers. Wear walking shoes, and don't attempt the descent unless you're in reasonably good shape, as you may have to scramble over rocks at the base of the stairs. Remember, you'll also have to climb back up!

This easy-to-find nature preserve is many people's first point of contact with the island's Greenway Trails system. The main trail runs south about 1 mile to clay bluffs with great ocean views, from which a winding path descends to the rocky beach below. Side trails cross the 230-acre tract, offering longer hikes and the allure of getting mildly lost. The striking, if muted, natural beauty makes it easy to understand why, 40 years ago, this was the property that first awoke the local land conservation movement, now close to achieving its goal of preserving half the island. Geology buffs will appreciate this fine example of a glacial outwash basin. Nature lovers may enjoy looking for the Block Island meadow vole (field mouse), the northern harrier (a threatened raptor species), and the American burying beetle (the equally imperiled state insect). A small parking lot sits just south of Cooneymus Road near a stone marker.

An 1867 granite lighthouse on the northern tip of Block Island (the fourth lighthouse on this site), North Light also serves as a maritime museum. The surrounding Block Island National Wildlife Refuge is home to American oystercatchers, piping plovers, and other rare migrating birds. From a parking lot at the end of Corn Neck Road, it's a ½-mile hike over sand to the lighthouse. Seals sun themselves on nearby Sandy Point in winter, and some even summer here.

On the spit of land between Sachem Pond and Cow Cove, this monument lists the names of the original settlers of Block Island and marks the spot where they landed in 1661 (swimming to shore with their cows). A ½-mile hike from here over sandy terrain will get you to North Light.