Crescent Beach stretches nearly two miles along Block Island's eastern shore, a rare commodity on this windswept outcrop twelve miles off the Rhode Island coast. The sand here runs fine and pale, packed firm enough at low tide for long barefoot walks but soft where the dunes slope down. You'll notice families clustered near Scotch Beach, the nickname locals use for the northernmost section, where the sandbar creates a natural wading pool.
“Block Island's only beach where toddlers can wade safely a hundred feet from shore without breaking waist-deep water.”
Credit: Flickr'Red hour' on the dunes
The water temperature climbs into the low seventies by July, several degrees warmer than the island's western beaches thanks to southern exposure and sheltered contours. Sanderlings skitter along the wrack line, probing for sand fleas, while offshore you might spot the dark heads of harbor seals bobbing between swells. The beach faces southeast, so morning light slants gold across the water, and by afternoon the dunes throw cooling shade.
You'll find public access points every few hundred yards along Corn Neck Road, most with small gravel lots that fill by mid-morning in summer. Rent beach chairs and umbrellas from the shack near the pavilion, or claim your square of sand among the beachgoers who return to the same spot year after year, coolers packed with sandwiches, paperbacks creased from salt air and repeated reading.
