On a crisp, sunny day in December, I paced up and down miles’ worth of smooth, sandy beaches. I’d heard there were seals to spot just off the shore of Block Island, but I had my head down, turned away from the surf – because even more than I wanted to spy on the wildlife, I wanted to find a glass float.
From the 1840s to the 1940s, these small, blown glass orbs were used to keep fishnets from sinking. Since 2011, however, artist Eben Horton and his team have made these floats to hide around the 9.7sq mile island for a year-round scavenger hunt. A team of volunteers hides hundreds of them each year, tucking them into the hollows of driftwood, the cracks in stone walls, and the crooks of short trees along wooded trails. Each one is numbered and logged, and finders get a mention in the town newspaper for a moment of local fame whenever they register their win (etiquette is to keep only one per year, to leave some fun for everyone else). It’s free to participate – you just have to pay attention and take care not to walk off-trail or damage fragile habitats.
I grew up in mainland Rhode Island, which, despite its name, is not an island at all. The “Block,” as we often call it, has been one of my favourite places for so long that I cannot remember a time before I knew the Block Island Ferry jingle by heart. Over 30 years later, it remains the same: a Caribbean-inspired earworm played on steel drums, inviting you to “sail away on the Block Island Ferry, take a trip back to carefree times”.
Beyond southern New England, however, it’s eclipsed by the larger, richer, and more famous Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, which are both part of Massachusetts. While the island is far from undiscovered, there is a bit of a locals’ secret: if you go before June or after August, you’ll see an entirely different island. Beyond peak season, the ferries slow down, the summer residents pack up, and most of the hotels and restaurants close or reduce their hours for locals-only operations.
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In December, I slept on the island for the first time, at the 1661 Inn. I met owner Rita Draper in the lobby, and she let me hold a glass float that had been found in a previous summer. That was all I needed: I caught the bug, and set out on a quest. I put on a blaze orange vest at the trailhead for Rodman’s Hollow, where it’s possible to hunt deer, and walked the wooded paths with purpose. I paid far more attention to the details than I normally would, spotting twists in tree trunks and stopping to listen to the birds. When I felt satisfied that I wouldn’t find any floats there, I started peering through the slots in the stone walls surrounding the parking lot, then moved on to the beaches.
At the North Light, a historic lighthouse at the tip of the island, I took on a different mission. I’d heard at the 1661 that it’s common to spot seals here, and I wanted to try my luck. I’ve been on seal tours before in Northumberland and Norfolk, but I’ve never seen them on my own turf. Rhode Island has hundreds of miles of coastline – and not a single one of them is privately-owned, thanks to a coastal access law passed in 2023 – but marine mammals always seemed out of reach from the beaches of Wakefield and Newport that I knew much better. They simply seemed too interesting to grace a place so close to home.
On my way to the point of the beach, which juts into the ocean like an arrow, some walkers beamed at me as they returned to their car. They saw tons of seals, they told me, and they marvelled at how playful they were.
To my delight, I watched for over an hour as dozens of seals played hide-and-seek and took turns poking their little faces out of the water. I’ve never seen so many of them, so close. Even without binoculars, I could see that they were just as curious about me as I was about them. They often ducked as I tried to photograph them, only to mock me when I wasn’t paying attention. When I turned away from one group to try to film another, I saw out of the corner of my eye that a bunch of them had congregated to stare at me the way I’d stared at them. When I looked more closely at my photos, later, I counted as many as a dozen curious little faces at once.
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Small as it is, Block Island has 365 freshwater ponds and 30 miles of nature trails. Half the island is protected from development, and I was surprised by how wild and rural it felt in parts of the interior, even though I was never more than a few miles from “downtown”. In the middle of the island, in rare moments where I couldn’t see the ocean, the gentle hills of farmland delineated by old rock walls reminded me an awful lot of the English countryside – not what I’d expected, though I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering the English named the island’s only town, New Shoreham, after one of their own.
You won’t find arcades, casinos, amusement rides, or other standard seaside pastimes here, nor any chain stores, restaurants, or highways. You will, however, find a small animal farm at the 1661, which offers free tours daily to anyone who’s interested. It’s quite the collection of ragtag ungulates and exotic creatures: a camel, a zebra-donkey hybrid called a ‘zonkey,’ alpacas, a miniature horse, and lemurs from a zoo that could no longer keep them are just some of the beloved misfits who have found a welcoming home here.
In the end, I didn’t find any glass floats, hard as I’d tried. But they served their purpose anyway: In just two days, I saw more of the island than I had on all of my previous visits combined. And now I’ve got a real reason to come back.
How to get there
The Block Island Ferry offers daily service from Point Judith, Rhode Island, and seasonal services from Newport, New London, Connecticut, and Montauk and Orient Point, New York. New England Airlines offers flights from Westerly – just 12 minutes from runway to runway.
Getting around
If you enjoy walking, you can easily get by on Block Island without a car. If you want a faster way to get around, you can rent bicycles or mopeds from a number of businesses close to the ferry, including Island Moped & Bike. Taxi services are available. If you feel you absolutely need a car of your own, you can rent one on the island or drive onto the ferry with wheels from the mainland.
Where to stay
The 1661 Inn, an eight-minute walk from the ferry landing, is open year-round, and offers comfortable rooms and suites with stunning ocean views. During high season, you can choose from dozens of other historic hotels, inns, B&Bs, and vacation rentals.
Kassondra travelled as a guest of the 1661 Inn and the Block Island Ferry.
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