Spinney Hills is in

East Quogue, New York East Quogue is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Southampton in Suffolk County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 4,757 at the 2010 census. History East Quogue originally settled in 1673 a ...

on the eastern end of the

Long Island Central Pine Barrens The Long Island Central Pine Barrens (also known as the Long Island Pine Barrens) is a large area of publicly protected pine barrens in Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island, covering more than . The Barrens operates in a similar manner to Ad ...

region. It is sometimes used as a hiking, hunting, and

off-roading Off-roading is the activity of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, and other natural terrain. Types of off-roading range in intensity, from leisure drives with unmodified vehicl ...

area for dirt bikers, quadders, paintballers, and four-wheelers that includes miles of trails with near beach sand consistency. Spinney Hills gets its name because of Spinney Road, which used to connect the East Quogue side of the hills to Sears Bellows County Park and Flanders (home of the

Big Duck The Big Duck is a ferrocement building in the shape of a duck located in Flanders, New York, on Long Island. It was originally built in 1931 by duck farmer Martin Maurer in nearby Riverhead, and used as a shop to sell ducks and duck eggs. It ...

) to the north prior to the construction of the Sunrise Highway

New York State Route 27 New York State Route 27 (NY 27) is a long state highway that runs east–west from Interstate 278 (I-278) in the New York City borough of Brooklyn to Montauk Point State Park on Long Island, New York. Its two most prominent c ...

. This region was created by glacial deposits of rock and sand during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

. The sandy soil also absorbs most rainfall so there are few ponds or rivers in the area. There is a shallow glacial well in Spinney Hills known as an

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...

, which is where most of the rainfall in the region is stored. These hills are the continuation of a long east west ridge of hills known as the Ronkonkoma Moraine, which form the 'backbone' of Long Island. Much of this region is undeveloped other than a sand mine to the west and Southampton Pines to the east. There have been legal disputes between private real estate companies and the Town of Southampton over the future of the area, being it is one of the last expanses of wilderness left on Long Island. There is a large native population of

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

in the region due to lack of natural predators. In the higher elevations small sections of the hills have an almost alpine-desert look, with sandy open plateaus and extremely dwarfed vegetation. The Dwarf

Pitch Pine ''Pinus rigida'', the pitch pine, is a small-to-medium-sized pine. It is native to eastern North America, primarily from central Maine south to Georgia and as far west as Kentucky. It is found in environments which other species would find unsuit ...

which dominate the region grow not much taller than twenty feet in height due to dry, nutrient-poor soil. There is a desert effect in the Pine Barrens, with relatively higher daytime temperatures and cooler nighttime temperatures than the coast, only a few miles away. There are views of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and

Peconic Bay The Peconic Bay is the parent name for two bays between the North Fork and South Fork, Suffolk County, New York, South Fork of Long Island in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is separated from Gardiners Bay by Shelter Island (t ...

from certain peaks in the area.

External links

Pinebarrens.orgstate.ny.us
{{Coord, 40, 52, 10, N, 72, 35, 33, W, type:landmark_region:US-NY, display=title Landforms of Suffolk County, New York Southampton (town), New York Hills of New York (state)