Cliff Walk

Author's Comments

There is a tension at the heart of the Cliff Walk that I have never quite resolved, and I think that is what keeps me coming back. On one side, the Atlantic is doing what the Atlantic has always done - working at the limestone, throwing spray, refusing to be tamed. On the other side, behind hedges and wrought iron, sit some of the most ambitious houses ever built in this country. The path threads between them for three and a half miles and asks you to hold both things at once. The northern section is where most people start and most people stop. I would keep walking. Past Rough Point the trail gets rougher, the crowds thin out, and the coast becomes the louder voice. The rocks down there are slick and uneven and the path occasionally feels like a suggestion rather than a route. That is when it is good. Late September is my season. The summer light has lost its hardness, the tourists have mostly gone home, and the ocean takes on that deeper blue that only arrives once the air has cooled. Golden hour on a clear evening turns the cliffs themselves a warm ochre, and if you time it right, the mansions catch the same light from the inland side and the whole walk goes briefly cinematic. It does not last long. Maybe twenty minutes. Bring a wide lens for the coast and something longer for the houses, and do not try to photograph everything. This is a place to walk first and shoot second.

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