Date visited: 6/13/2024

We've been finding these places lately that are really "off the beaten path." This place sure is one of those! Of course, the entire town of Little Compton is pretty much "off the beaten path". This spot is at the end of a dirt road. There's a parking area, and an open grassy field. There are no picnic tables, but there is a bench with an overlook of the ocean. There's a stone path that leads from the grass area, down a hill to the very rocky beach. The beach is beautiful! There's a very small sandy area, the rest is loose pebbles of varying sizes. The beach faces south and out to the Atlantic Ocean. We walked the rocky shoreline, around the large cliff, and out to what looks like another small beach. We were here for about two hours, and had the beach completely to ourselves for about an hour and a half of that! It was a warm, sunny, day in Mid-June, so I was very surprised there was not more people here. There's not a lot of walking opportunity here, and if you walk the beach, you'll be walking on loose stone, so you have to have good footing. It's a great spot to bring the dogs to cool off. It was sort of hazy when we arrived, but cleared up more and more while we were here, and it turned out to be a wonderful day! This secret spot was a really nice surprise!

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Date visited: 7/17/2022

This might have been just an ordinary walk int he woods, but volunteers have taken the extra steps to make this place a little bit more than that. There are signs that they created all along the way describing the plant life and history of the area. The first part of the trail that leads from the parking lot to the pond features 30 hand made poop shovels strategically placed along the trail. The sign on the main information board instructs dog walkers to "Launch it far off this laneway with a dog shovel". I've never seen that before on a trail! Evidently this a popular place with dog walkers. In fact, we witnessed a man flinging floating balls into the big pond for his dog to fetch. Mandy and Lexi will walk into a pond, maybe lay down to cool off, but they don't want anything to do with being out over their heads!

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Date visited: 9/24/2022

We stopped here on our way back from our trip to Gooseberry Neck, so I could get some additional steps. This spot consists of some wide dirt roads, as well as some standard trails that loop around. Some of the trails were overgrown. We mostly stayed on the well worn wide paths. This is a popular place dog walking place, and not all of them are always leashed. We encountered a nice woman at the start of our walk who thanked me for having the dogs on the leash.

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Date visited: 9/8/2024

This is a fantastic nature preserve and beach. Dogs are allowed in the off-season, from September 2nd until March 31st. There preserve includes a long stretch of scenic beach, Quicksand Pond, and some mowed and sandy trails in between. The preserve can only be reached by passing through South Shore Beach first. Last time we were at that beach, it was in the middle of winter and it was too cold to pass through a small creek that serves as the barrier between the two beaches. I came prepared to walk through the water for this trip, but there was no gap this time around. I'm actually glad we didn't get to explore this preserve in the winter, because it was a much more enjoyable day this time around. Weather was windy and cool, only about 70 degrees. We walked the length of the beach first. The eastern end of the beach actually crosses the state line into Westport Massachusetts, where we continued for a short stretch until we couldn't go any further. On the way back, we checked out the trails. They basically run in-between the beach and the pond. There's a barn building in a mowed clearing that serves as an education center, with an odd sign around the back indicating that this area is "Not a Bathroom". Assuming this must have been a problem at one point! This was a very fun adventure, and highly recommended!

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Dates visited: 1/8/2023 & 9/8/2024

Little Compton was the last town in Rhode Island with beach front (either the ocean or the bay), that we had not been to the shore. We almost didn't make it. The beach was technically closed, at least the parking lot was. A local told me that the last storm did a lot of damage and the parking lot has been worn away and needs to be rebuilt. Luckily, P.T. Marvell Preserve is near by, so we parked there and took a connecting trail that led straight to the beach. The real gem is supposedly Goosewing Beach Preserve, which can only be accessed from South Shore Beach. Unfortunately, there was no way to reach it without passing through a shin-deep stream. If it was 20 degrees warmer, I probably would have gone through, but I guess we'll have to save that for another time.

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We visited this beach for a second time, but our purpose this time around was to go to Goosewing Beach Preserve, which can only be accessed from this beach. Last time we were here in the middle of winter and the parking lot was closed because of damage from a recent storm. Since then, the parking lot has been rebuilt, but it looks like it took up some of the beach, because the actual beach area was a thin strip between the lot and the water. They charge money to park here in the summer months, but it looks like they stop charging after Labor Day. We took a few photos on this section of the beach, but the real gem is Goosewing Beach, where we headed next.

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Dates visited: 1/8/2023 & 9/8/2024

This nature preserve is about a tenth of mile from South Shore Beach. We parked here and took a connecting trail to the beach, but we also checked out the preserve as well. There are mowed trails through a field with some woods on the outskirt. It's actually a pretty nice short walk around the preserve. There is an observation tower with a view of the beach, and surrounding marsh lands.

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Since the first time we were here was in the middle of winter, I decided to go for a quick walk through this preserve while we in the area visiting Goosewing Beach Preserve. Everything was much greener this time around, even though some of the leaves had already started to wilt. We took the same photo from the observation platform that we took last time, but you can see much less of the beach, and none of the salt pond due to the leaves still being on the trees.

Date visited: 7/3/2024

There are secret beaches, and then there are "secret beaches"! This one doesn't even show up on Google Maps! I found it on an old PDF file that the University of Rhode Island put out entitled "Public Access to the Rhode Island Coast". Some of the information is out of date, since it was published in 2004. But the information on this beach was spot on! The beach is accessed at the end of Taylor's Lane (hence the name). There's a parking area for about 10 cars. There were only two other cars parked when I arrived, and no other cars when I left. The beach itself is rocky. It's surface is mostly loose pebble type stones, but there are areas with larger rocks, and even some spots with fine sand. The waves are moderate. We're up the cove a bit, but you can still see out to the open waters. Across the cove you can see Middletown and Newport. The beach is longer than I expected. There's about three quarters of a mile of easy walking, before the rocks on the north end get to be a little too much to conquer. I assume dogs are allowed. There were no signs that indicated otherwise. In fact, there were no other signs at all, but there was a trash and recycle bin in the parking lot. The only troubling thing was that we did come across what looked like a dead baby shark that washed up on shore. Other than that, this beach was a really nice find. I'm not really worried about spoiling the "secret" of this beach, since nobody really reads this website anyway!

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