A winter hike along the centuries-old dividers
It’s blissful, hiking through the forests of the George B. Parker Woodland Wildlife Refuge on the western fringe of Rhode Island. But these woods were once an 18th Century farm, and “field stone” walls mark the edges of long-ago pastures.
Notes & Miscellanea
- Truly, no one knows who built the cairns that cluster around the trail. Many believe they were piled by Indigenous peoples, while others assume it was settlers.
- The full refuge encompasses 860 acres, and hiking all the major trails can take hours.
- The large boulders deposited in New England are technically known as “glacial erratics.” The National Parks Service has a quick description of this phenomenon, as well as some well known examples.
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