Dates visited: 6/10/2022 & 10/2/2023

When we were at Compass Rose Beach a few weeks ago, we met a family who suggested we check this place out. It was a good suggestion. There's a loop trail that circles the park, with side trails that take you right out to the rocks. The lighthouse made for some good photo opportunities. One part of the trail was washed out, but we found an alternate trail that got us around. Maybe not quite as nice as some of other Rhode Island adventures, but it was still a worthwile visit.

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This is the second of five places we visited on this warm day in early October, and our second visit to this wonderful state park. The other four places were on the shorter side, so this stop provided me an opportunity to get in some extra steps. We concentrated on the area around the lighthouse on the Newport side, and facing out to the ocean. We didn't take a lot of pictures of this section on our first visit. There was a cruise ship docked in Newport that you can see in some of the photos. I couldn't resist taking a few photos by the lighthouse as well, even though we already took photos there on our first visit.

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Dates visited: 8/18/2022, 8/13/2023 & 6/25/2024

This state park has a few different sections. The main section, with the ruins of the fort, is probably the creepiest place we've visited. The place has an apocalyptic vibe going for it. I feel like I walked on to the set of The Walking Dead or something. It's a former artillery fort, but was decomissioned after World War II and now a state park. The ruins have not been preserved. Nature and people have contributed to the decay. It is quite overgrown, and also quite vandalized, with layers of graffiti. Not to mention the garbage and glass everywhere. I'm sure the Rhode Island State Park philosophy of not providing garbage cans doesn't help in this regard. Most of the ruins can be explored inside and out, with only a few sections blocked off. There is a very steep trail behind the fort that goes downs to the rocky area on the shore line. We braved the challenging climb down and back up to check out the rocks that were also tagged by graffiti artists.

Another section of the park can be accessed via the park road or some very overgrown trails. This section is quite scenic as it features a trail that runs along side the edge of a very high cliff and offers outstanding views of Narragansett Bay. You can see across to Fort Adams in Newport. There are a series of benches at the top where you can just sit, relax and enjoy the view. Even with the garbage and decay, this was a very cool place to visit and offered some great photo opportunities.

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We were back a second time, a few days shy of a year from our last visit. This time we visited a whole different area of the park than we visited on our first visit. This section had another, smaller set of graffiti tagged ruins, but the highlights here are the scenic rocky areas. There are a few different spots that jet out into different coves, and even a couple of small beaches where people were sunbathing and swimming. There's also some dedicated fishing spots, and even a spot for scuba divers. I liked this section of the park quite a bit. I think the dogs enjoyed this section more, as it offered a few opportunities for them to cool off in the water.

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On this day, we came here just go to the beach. There are two different beach areas accessed from the scuba divers parking lot. We stayed mostly at the bigger beach, where most people go if they just want to hang on the beach. We did check out the smaller beach as well. We didn't do a lot of walking, since we had already walked over four miles through Newport, it was a hot day, and we had walked through most of the park on our previous visits. We did check out a very short trail that we didn't walk before, that led to a nice scenic overlook. I actually went in to the water, and tried to get Mandy and Lexi to go out further with me, but they don't like it when they can't touch the bottom.

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Date visited: 9/20/2023

This is a town park at the site of an old fort that offers a fantastic view of the lower Narragansett Bay. The best spot is along the beach on the south and west ends of the park. There's also a nature trail that leads out to a boat launch and a salt marsh. The park is mainly known as a campground, and even though it is off-season now, there was still an army of RV's parked at the campground. The best part about the park is that dogs are allowed year round. I think after October 1st they are even allowed off-leash. During the season, there's a $20 day fee to park, and it's not clear when the "season" ends, but there was no parking fee for us in Late September. This is definitely a worthwhile trip, just for the views.

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Dates visited: 8/18/2022 & 7/18/2024

We stopped here on our way back from Fort Wetherill State Park to take some pictures. There are great views of the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge here, and the dogs were able to get into the water.

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While our first visit here was brief, we stayed longer this time around. This was a nice two mile walk along Conanicus Avenue, passing through Conanicut Marina, East Ferry Memorial Square, and East Ferry Beach. The beach is a thin strip of sand between the road and the water, with wonderful views of boats and the bridge. It's a good spot for the dogs, as they have easy access to calm waters.

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Date visited: 2/10/2023

This is a scenic site on the north side of the Claibone Pell Newport Bridge. There is a very short trail that leads out to the rocks. There are some nice views of the bay and the bridge.

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Date visited: 8/13/2023

I'm not positivie on the name of this place, but I see "Old Salt Work Beach" on Google Maps. This is a super tiny beach on Dumpling Drive just north of the Jamestown Boatyard. There's also a private beach near here with signs to keep out, but there were no such signs here. You can pretty much see the entire beach in the first picture below. The second picture is the pier at the boatyard. We didn't walk on the pier, we just took a photo from the road. We walked here from Fort Wetherill State Park so I could get some more steps. It was a nice detour, but not worth going out of your way for.

Date visited: 10/2/2023

This was the first of five stops we made in Jamestown on this day. It's the site of an old colonial military battery built during the revolutionary war. There are monuments and signs dedicated to the history of the battery. Evidently dogs are allowed to be off-leash here year round. The trails are short, and even though there are some nice views of the bay, there is no access to the water. It's a good park to let the dogs run free for a bit, but there's not a lot to do other than that here.

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Date visited: 10/2/2023

This is a really neat "secret" beach. There's a short trail through the woods that leads out to Hull Cove and it's rocky beach. The water is calm. and there are some nice views. The beach is short, but we ventured out a bit on the rocks as well. It's probably used more for fishing and surfing then for sunbathing and swimming. It's still pretty nice, especially since dogs are allowed. Just be aware, there are only four or five parking spots, and there is no parking on the road. I imagine it can fill up pretty quick on weekend days in the summer.

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Date visited: 10/2/2023

The first time we drove by this beach was on our first to Jamestown when we were headed to Beavertail State Park. As we passed, Lexi was looking out the window and started barking. It looked like the kind of place we visited, so Lexi wanted us to stop here! We finally did, about 16 months later! Dogs are allowed after October 1st, but the parking is permit parking only until October 15th, but only enforced here until 5PM. Got It? Jamestown has some complicated rules with their town properties related to parking and dogs. This is a pretty calm beach, being tucked inside a cove. We saw the same cruise ship from Beavertail earlier in the day as it was departing dock in Newport. We didn't stay very long. It only takes about 10 minutes to walk the length of the beach and back.

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Date visited:10/2/2023

This beach is also known as "Sunset Beach". You can see why in the first photo below. I made sure we arrived here for sunset! There are some complicated rules regarding when dogs are allowed. Evidently they are allowed year round north of the middle jetty, and only allowed in the off-season on the rest of the beach. There is a grassy park area out front as well. Be aware, there are signs in the parking lot indicating that it's permit parking only from May 15th to October 15th. We were a couple weeks early, but there were only a handful of cars in the lot. The beach is west facing, so the view is of the bay and the Jamestown Bridge, and not the open ocean. It's still a nice place to watch the sunset.

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Date visited: 11/16/2023

This is a small beach area near the Newport bridge toll plaza. There's a small lot off Freebody Drive with a stair case that leads down to the beach. Jamestown has complicated rules for when dogs are allowed at town parks and beaches. They are allowed here off-leash from October 1st thru May 15th. They are also allowed to be off leash here from May 16th through September 30th, but only between the hours of 6am to 10am and 5:30pm to sunset. They are not allowed at all at other times (which I guess is 10:01am through 5:29pm during the summer months). It's not a great beach, but the dogs don't mind! Actually, despite the nice weather, there was only one other dog here arriving as we were leaving. The beach is small, it took only about 15 minutes to walk the entire length and back. The area connects with Taylor Point Lookout, a place we had visited previously.

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Date visited: 11/16/2023

This beach is located on the northeast tip of Jamestown, with views of Prudence Island. Dogs are allowed during the off-season. I believe the rules are the same as Potter's Cove (but don't blame me if they're not. I only looked at the sign real quick). Keep in mind, there are also only six parking spots. Three at the very end of the road require a town permit. It looks like non-residents can park on the three along the right side of the street. I did not see a permit only sign for those spots. According to the town's website, this was the spot of a steamboat landing for travel between Providence, Jamestown and Newport in the 1900's. The beach is a bit rocky, and the water is calm. There's a series of docks as you head north. Mandy decided to go in the water near one of the docks, despite it being November. Unforuntely, my camera broke at a previous stop, so the pictures below were taken on my iPhone. This time of year, the sun is low in the sky by 2PM, so I wasn't able to get the pictures I wanted because of the shadows and the lack of a decent flash on the phone.

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Date visited: 11/16/2023

This is the site of soccer fields. In the off-season, when soccer season is over, dogs are allowed to run around here off-leash. The real surprise was that there was still some foliage on the trees here.

Date visited: 11/16/2023

This bike trail is across the street from Eldred Field. I didn't know that it existed. There's no signage or anything, but there is a poop bag dispenser by the trail head. The trail runs along side the Jamestown Public Garden before turning left and heading out to Jamestown Reservoir. It looks like they are constructing a continuation of the trail between the reservoir and North Main Road. The existing trail was about 3/4 of a mile, so about a mile and a half out and back.

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Date visited: 11/17/2024

This was a fun adventure. Along the west side of Seaside Drive is a number of public waterfront access points. We parked at Head's Beach and headed a half mile north to the "Buccaneer Way" access point. From there we followed the short, and easy path to the shore. We walked south along to the shore until we were back at Head's Beach. From there, we went south about a mile down Seaside Drive until we reached the Hull Street access point, just past the bridge. This one had some steep rock steps to climb down. We continued south along the rocky and shelly shore line. The terrain got easier the further south we went, as it almost seemed like we were walking on a trail. We of course stopped for all sorts of photos along the way. There are cool looking large gold and shiny white rocks. When I see these kinds of rocks, they are usually small ones on the ground, but these were large boulder size rocks that made for great photos. We went about a mile before turning around and heading back to the car the way we came. Mandy and Lexi finished the trip by taking a dip into the water. We walked just over four and a half miles on this very fun trek on a sunny autumn afternoon.

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Date visited: 11/20/2024

We parked at Eldred Field and walked about a half mile to this waterfront access point at the end of Decatur Avenue. From here, there are great views of the Newport Bridge looking south, and you can see the Mount Hope Bridge in the distance looking north. Unlike the access points on the west side of the island, there isn't much to explore. The terrain isn't passable just to the north and south of the actual access point.

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