89: Ice Age Keepsake
B L O C K I S L A N D, R I Second Bluff, Block Island, Rhode Island The sandy path I’m following ends at the end of an era. Fifteen thousand years ago, this path would have been underneath a glacier, but when the Ice Age ended and that glacier retreated, it left behind piles of ground up conglomerate forming a string of well-known east coast islands including Nantucket, Long Island, and where I’m walking: Block Island, Rhode Island. This path terminates at a bluff high above the Atlantic on top of that sand pile left behind by the Ice Age. It’s a pile at war with the sea. Incoming waves have been chewing away at the conglomerate for eons creating Block Island’s iconic Mohegan Bluffs. To the east of where I stand is the more popular access to Mohegan Bluffs, complete with parking lot, kiosk, placards, safety railings, and a long staircase leading the base where those chewy waves are at work. But the path I’m on is off that beaten path...