Wednesday, May 29, 2013

John H Chafee Nature Preserve, North Kingstown, RI

May 25, 2013
Distance: 2.1 miles
Time: 1 hour 9 minutes

Map: Weekend Walks in Rhode Island though if you want to do a straight out and back, there isn't a need for a map. There is one wide trail from the parking lot to the ocean. Several small side trails intersect it - I couldn't find a good map for these, including the book. My EveryTrail Iphone app had some, but not all of the side trails mapped. I decided to walk back using side trails, and relied on my phone to navigate them.

Parking: Large parking lot on Route 1A, just south of the intersection of Gilbert Stuart Road in North Kingstown, RI.
Restrooms: None
Post hike dinner: Whole Foods, Warwick

Directions: From parking area, follow the very wide trail straight to the ocean. You can come back the same way. However, I turned left and walked along the shoreline out to the peninsula, crossed to the other side of the peninsula, and then took dirt trails back (navigating with my phone at that point). I didn't follow trails along the beach. There is a trail that parallels the beach, but I wanted to walk along the beach as much as possible.

Notes: This is an easy hike. The beach on most of the hike is covered with shells and rocks, so if you worry about your dog cutting their feet, this might not be the hike for you. Trek's feet ended up fine. There were riptide warnings when we were there, so we didn't do any swimming in the ocean. We saw around 6 cars in the parking lot - most people we saw had dogs. But when we got to the beach, we were alone except for a couple looking at shells on the beach. The beach area is called Rome Point, and in the winter, it is a place to go to see seals. We were there past seal season.


Kiosk at trailhead. Shows a rough trail map.

This is the main trail to the ocean. Impossible to get lost.

All we could do is wade, due to the riptides. No swimming today. It was a cold rainy day anyways.


We saw around 10 of these birds on the far side of the peninsula (our turnaround point).

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