A visit to Dr. John Champlin Glacial Park, Westerly, RI
Sunday was a nice day to get out so we set off to a new (to us) spot. The Glacial Park had intrigued me for a year or two but somehow I had never gotten around to explore it. We had no expectations, going on intuition and the notion that at the very least there might be some nice glacial erratics to photograph. Lovely paths wind through a hilly landscape with kettle ponds and stone walls made from the round rocks that abound. Looked like field boundary walls to me. At the top of a hill was an opening into a boulder field that contained a split boulder with rocks tucked into the split.
Wandering a little further along another trail flanking the southwestern side of a small hill. A small rock pile came into view, but being near a wall, maybe it was a building pile?
We decided to keep our eyes open for others. But further we only saw one more pile, looked kind of disturbed. Not sure what we were seeing. Returned on the same trail and approached the area where the first pile was, but now looking from the other direction, spotted a covered boulder!
Then another and another! Cool.
Lots of leaf litter, but we did not want to disturb anything. These were at the border of the park, just at the edge of a new development, an empty "active adult" community of super-sized houses and condos. Had to wonder if there were even more of these that were destroyed. We found 10 of these in various states in this small area. Great surprise!
Found a nice map w/ stone walls illustrated:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.westerlylandtrust.org/docs/final%20glacier%20map%20outline.pdf
Thanks Tim. This map is posted large at the north entrance. Very helpful blazes mark the trails. The site with the stone piles is on the southern end of the blue trail near the edge by Kettle Close. If you want to see more photos:
ReplyDeletehttp://web.me.com/tedhendrickson/
Click on "My Albums" then "Westerly Park"