On Block Island: Take a walk on the wild side

Most people associate Rhode Island with the palatial Gilded Age “summer cottages’’ in Newport on the southern end of Aquidneck Island. Block Island is the antithesis of such materialism, a wild sliver of land 12 miles south of the mainland. Its remoteness and strict zoning laws have helped preserve its natural beauty.

Pictured: The Bluffs with a crescent of beach below.

The hour ferry ride from Galilee-Point Judith leaves you on this pork chop-shaped isle where weathered houses brave the ocean’s wrath on hillsides bordered by old stone walls and blue-green ponds.

Pictured: Ferries approaching the town of Old Harbor.

Old Harbor, the only town on the island, is filled with vintage Victorian white clapboard buildings looking out to sea.

Pictured: A scenic view of Lewis Farm on Block Island.

Crescent Beach’s 3-mile stretch of sand is packed with day-trippers in summer.

But on a weekday in spring, Crescent Beach is just a favorite dog-walking beach for some of the 1,051 year-round residents.

Just north of the beach, the Clay Head Nature Trail (pictured) meanders along red clay cliffs to a network of intricate hiking trails called The Maze.

If you venture here in the spring months before high season, you’ll no doubt be spending most of your time reading a novel atop a bluff.

“Or in a field of daffodils,’’ said Claire McQueeny, who’s lived here year-round for 20 years. “It’s sort of our local flower and they’re in full bloom in mid-April.’’

Pictured: A close-up shot of daffodils in full bloom on Block Island.