Mansion Beach

Mansion Beach: Mansion Beach is the last stretch of sand on Crescent Beach before it turns rough and rocky. It is a beautiful expanse of flat golden sand with essentially no rocks and the biggest waves on a sand beach on the island. The beach is named for a mansion built back in the dunes in 1889. The structure burned to the ground in 1963. . All that is left today are two stone pillars and a stone wall.

Mansion Beach is too far from town to walk to and a good, solid bike ride for families with kids say 8 and up. Although biking is possible, remember getting there is the easy part. Biking home with wet and sandy kids, exhausted from sun and surf is where it gets hard. Even though there is a fair amount of parking it is best to get there with a car early. The lot fills up fast, especially since all the tourists on Block Island seem to drive gigantic SUVs. There is a short trail to the beach. WATCH OUT FOR POISON IVY! It grows lushly on both sides of the trail. Most people settle down right at the end of the trail where it opens up onto the beach but lots of open space is available in either direction if you don’t mind walking.

The great thing about Mansion Beach is that it combines the best of all worlds. There is sand and surf but when kids need a break from boogie boarding and building sand castles it is easy enough to grab the buckets and walk a short distance north to the rocky tide pool area where kids can catch crabs and starfish. (Please return them to their natural habitat in a timely manner! Starfish do not do well in a bucket of saltwater baking in the sun on the porch of your rental house.) If you feel like walking further, at low-tide it is possible to continue north for a long way on the rocky beach. If you are ambitious you can even make to Clay Head Beach, which is the next beach to the north.
Getting There: Continue North on Corn Neck Road. Mansion Road is a dirt road on the right. The sign is a little hard to spot. There is a large shingled house on the corner with spectacular blue hydrangeas and Mansion Road itself is lined with pines. Along the dirt road you will come to a pair of stone pillars. These were part of the grounds of the mansion that once stood here. You will come to a fork in the road. Bear right. This will take you to the upper parking lot. If the beach is not crowded there may be parking in the lower lot which is a little closer to the trail to the beach. To reach the lower lot continue to drive through the upper lot and follow the road as it loops down into the lower lot. This loop is one way only so if you find there is no parking don’t turn around. You must continue driving, bear left and repeat the loop. At the northern end of the lower lot there is a trail to the beach. Again. Watch Out For Poison Ivy both in the parking lots and along the trail.