The Curious Hoodoos of Montauk’s Shadmoor Cliffs

In my current novel set in Montauk, I’ve taken my characters outdoors on some of my favorite walks and hikes in the area. One of these is a popular hike along the ocean cliffs of Shadmoor. The Shadmoor property, nearly 100 acres of Montauk moorland, is unique both for its cliffs, which form something called hoodoos, and for sandplain gerardia (Agalinis acuta), a tiny wildflower that is New York’s only federally listed endangered plant species. (A bit more about this plant here: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/nyregion/botanists-fear-long-island-droughts-toll-on-sandplain-gerardia-flower.html.)

As the article describes, the sandplain gerardia has bubble-gum pink flowers that last just one day when they bloom in late summer. The plants are only 10 inches tall, the branches mere filaments, with flowers the size of a thumbnail. I have never been lucky enough to see one, but I love them like no other flower, because they were a major reason the nearly 100 acres of Montauk moorland became a state park in 2000. It took nearly 20 years of grassroots efforts to save the parcel from development, and I serve on the board of one of the organizations that spearheaded that effort, The Concerned Citizens of Montauk (https://www.preservemontauk.org/).

While these tiny plants are almost never seen, hoodoos, the other unique feature of Shadmoor, are impossible to miss. These formations are created from the wind and wave action of the ocean munching away at the cliffs. The cliffs are composed of soft and hard soils, and because the soft soils erode faster than the clay, these peculiar effects are the result.

I often walk the trails along the top of the cliff, which gives wonderful views west toward town and east to Ditch Plains, sometimes with surfers in the distance. In my novel, my character Clancy walks the trail after a snowfall – it’s especially thrilling then.