In the middle of the Ocean State, sand dunes emerge from the forest.
“Desert” isn’t a term of endearment: The word is used to for empty spaces, lifeless environments, and wastelands beyond redemption. Yet deserts can be beautiful and freeing. If you’ve spent most of your life in dense places—packed with buildings, trees, power lines, and signage—the openness of a desert is a gobsmacking experience. And a 40-acre anomaly in rural Rhode Island conjures the same agoraphilic magic.
Notes & Miscellanea
- Google Maps calls it the Rhode Island Desert, but many locals apparently know this place as “The Dunes.” EcoRI published an enlightening profile on this surreal nook in 2023.
- Desert Solitaire is of course a reference to the autobiographical novel by environmentalist Edward Abbey. You’ve still never finished it, but you recently read a phenomenal book, All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West, by David Gessner.
- Rhode Island will never rival Arizona for high temperatures, but there’s a lot of truth to the concept of “dry heat.” The entire time you lived there, you were led to believe that residents were legally required to provide water to strangers upon request. This made sense to you; water is a life-or-death concern in the Sonoran Desert, especially in the summer months. You were crestfallen to learn, only recently, that this “law” is just a popular myth.
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