Date visited: 7/6/2022

The inland towns of Rhode Island aren't as interesting as the costal towns, but they do feature many different hiking areas. This nature preserve is one of them. There are a few different blazed trails here, but we walked a 1.5 mile loop trail that incorporated three different trails. We started on the narrow yellow blazed trail and connected to the wider blue blazed via the red blazed trail, which passes the old cemetery. Other than the cemetery, which dates back to the 1800's, this is pretty much just a basic, albeit pleasant, walk in the woods.

Date visited: 9/8/2022

This is one of the many wildlife management areas in Rhode Island. Hunting season starts the second Saturday in September in Rhode Island, and while you can still hike at these places during hunting season if you wear a certain amount of orange, I just prefer not to. So we only had a couple days left to visit this place. We came here after work, and sun sets early so the sun was low in the sky by the time we got here. We hiked about a mile and a half loop. The trail was mostly wide and well maintained, except for the section leading up to the rickety bridge toward the end of the loop. There was also a historic cemetery. We saw some deer across the river, but they were moving too fast and I was not able to get a photo. Other than the bridge and cemetery, the place wasn't that memorable. It was a fine walk in the woods, but probably not worth the hour and twenty minute drive.

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Date visited: 10/24/2023

This is a series of nature preserves jointly maintained by The Nature Conservancy and Hopkinton Land Trust. We hiked a 1.2 mile loop, part of the Hoxie Preserve, which I guess is also part of the Canonchet Preserve. It's all pretty confusing. The sign did say that the preserves were part of the "Borderlands Dark Sky Trail System", which sounds very cool. The hike is a pretty basic walk in the woods, with some classic New England stone walls, but not much else of interest. The fall colors were nice, but other than that, this was pretty much unremarkable.

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Date visited: 7/1/2025

It was a warm and muggy day, so we went on shorter adventures. This is a very easy walking trail that runs parallel to Bushy Brook in the Hope Valley section of Hopkinton. There's a trailhead and parking off Mechanic Street. The north end of the trail exits just behind Depot Square Park. The south end of the trail features an observation platform near where the brook empties to Wood River. The entire walk was less than a mile. It's a good spot if you're looking for a really short walk.

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Date visited: 7/1/2025

This is a mile trail from Canonchet Road to Blue Pond. It's an easy walk with a slight incline down. The trail is lined with Mountain Laurel's, but unfortunately we were a few weeks too late for that. At the end of the trail is a large rock, overlooking the pond. It was a hot and muggy day, so the dogs wasted no time cooling off. Lexi misjudged how deep the water was, and actually wound up swimming. Both dogs really dislike going into the water when it's over their heads! This time around, Lexi seemed pretty fine with it, and seemed happy to be able to cool off for a bit!

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Date visited: 7/15/2025

This is a public fishing area near the "Old Stone Dam". There's a very short trail in the woods that leads to a spot where Mandy and Lexi were able to get into the river. The dogs usually like to just sit down in the shallow water, but Lexi actually did some swimming on here own! Even though this spot is very close to the Brushy Brook Trail, there is private property between the two spots and no access. We did walk to the other side of the dam in Richmond, and also down the street to Tefft Fishing Access.

Date visited: 7/15/2025

This is a small fishing area on the site of an old mill. We walked here from Mechanic Street Fishing Access. There was a nice spot for Mandy and Lexi to get into the water.

Date visited: 8/17/2025

We hiked an easy 1.4 mile loop trail here. It's a pretty standard walk in the woods, with plenty of stone walls and a brand new bridge that was "Cameron's Eagle Project - Troop 121". The trail is well marked and maintained, but there was a very large tree that fell recently, blocking the trail about a third of a mile in. We were able to get around it without too much trouble. This was a nice, short hike, but nothing too special.

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Date visited: 4/10/2026

This is a 25 acre park located in the Ashaway section of Hopkinton. It features a large open field, a small pond, a playground, a tennis court, basketball court, a picnic pavilion and a gazebo. The Crandall House is also located on the property, and serves as the town's senior center. The park is a nice place to take the dogs for a walk.

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Date visited: 8/25/2026

Per ChatGPT's suggestion, we checked out the Hope Valley area of Hopkinton. We had already been to this area before when we visited Brushy Brook, but this time we started at this small town park. The park has a playground, a pavilion and a ballfield. There is a paved walking path around the park that leads to Hope Valley Elementary School. There are a couple poop bag dispensers too. We headed up Nooseneck Hill Road and went to Hope Valley Fishing Area next.

Date visited: 8/25/2026

This fishing area for the Wood River is nestled behind and between little league fields. There is a parking area behind the fields, but we walked from Langworthy Field. There is a nice pavilion and a wooden deck here, as well as a small boat launch which only looks suitable for kayaks. There is another spot to access the river on the other side of the ball fields. It's at this other river access where we had quite a scare. Mandy and Lexi's leashes are normally hooked together, so I only have to hold one of the leashes. The hook came undone and I didn't realize, and at some point Mandy was no longer walking with us. I was all the way back up to Noose Neck Road when I realized Mandy wasn't there, and I quickly backtracked shouting her name. A couple of people who were out and about helped join the search. I circled back to the river looking for her, and then back up to the street. I was starting to panic. A man found her down by the river (even though I had just been down there calling for her but couldn't find her). I was so grateful and relieved, and a bit annoyed that Lexi didn't alert me to the fact that Mandy was missing! It seemed like she was missing for a long time, but she was only gone for about five minutes, and I could tell she went back into the water to cool off as she was very wet when the man found her. The ordeal definitely stressed me out, but thankfully we were all reunited and no harm was done. Many thanks to kind strangers who jumped in to help me look for her.

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Date visited: 8/25/2026

These pictures are from the Hopkinton (Hope Valley) side of the Wyoming Pond Dam. There are also some photos from the Richmond (Wyoming) side on that page. This was our final stop on our Hope Valley walk that also included Langworthy Field and Hope Valley Fishing Area. We walked just under three miles total on this trip.

Date visited: 9/2/2026

This place sounded much nicer than it was when I read about. There's a mystery about who built the stone piles here and why. Unfortunately, the actual preserve isn't that great. It's terribly overgrown and not maintained. Not only that, the branches are thorny and I have some nice new cuts on my legs. The parking area has no signage, but there is a small kiosk shortly after the trail starts. There are stone piles here, but there are stone piles at a lot of different places in the northeast. Once the trail passes the rocks, it just kind of stops. The whole thing wasn't even a quarter of a mile. This one isn't worth the effort, and we quickly headed somewhere else.

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