The Beauty Around Us

On Day 3 (Tuesday, June 21) of our 1000 Island Vacation we visited places south of our home port of Alexandria Bay, NY.  Today’s blog post is about Rock Island Lighthouse.

Rock Island Lighthouse is located approximately 4.5 miles northeast of Clayton NY, off of Fishers Landing. The lighthouse is one of six lighthouses put up along the St. Lawrence River to guide traffic to and from Lake Ontario through the waterway. Rock Island Lighthouse is the best preserved of the six lighthouses.  The lighthouse is accessible by boat only.

We originally planned to take a boat tour from Clayton to Rock Island to visit the Rock Island Lighthouse. However, after seeing the lighthouse from Fishers Landing and at Fineview on Wellesley Island, we decided to save the boat tour for another visit.

In Fishers Landing I walked to the end of a dead end street and was rewarded with my first sighting of the Rock Island Lighthouse.  Please note in the images shared below that the lighthouse appears much closer than it really was.  I obtained these photographs by use of a telephoto lens, cropping the resultant images.

Rock Island Lighthouse

An elderly gentleman named Art, who lived at the last house on that dead end street told me that a better view of the lighthouse was possible on Wellesley Island. He said that trees would not be in the way, as they were from his vantage point. Following Art’s direction Bob and I crossed over the Thousands Islands Bridge (Interstate 81), paid the $2.75 toll and arrived on Wellesley Island.

Thousand Islands Bridge
(view from Fishers Landing)

Rock Island Lighthouse

The Fineview vantage point did provide for a much better view of Rock Island Lighthouse. Thank you, Art, for the suggestion!

After admiring Rock Island Lighthouse from a distance, we continued onto Wellesley Island State Park — the subject of the next blog post in my 1000 Islands Vacation series.