Warwick Pond is an 85 acre pond in the middle of Warwick, just east of the T.F. Green Airport…read more There is a boat launch off of Wells Avenue for hand-carried boats, it's mostly street parking for anyone wanting to visit or to come for any water activities. This put-in is at a small park on the east side of the pond, and provides a suitable location for launching hand-carried boats. There is no parking lot, but there is roadside parking. There's a fence between the road and the park, with a gate leading into the park. Buckeye Brook flows out of the southwest corner of the pond and is large enough to paddle for some distance. The brook is very slow moving in this area so once you have gone as far as you want to you can reverse direction and come back upstream to the pond. The shoreline of the pond is largely developed. The brook feels less developed because of the wetlands that provide a buffer between the brook and the adjacent residential neighborhoods. This pond has ongoing issues with toxic algae blooms. Such blooms are most likely to happen in the summer. When there is an algae bloom people and pets should avoid contact with the water...just check the alerts put out by the RIDOH and DEM.

My boyfriend and I moved to Warwick about a year and a half ago, and have struggled with the fact…read morethat we don't own a pool and are fairly far away from the South County beaches (especially with traffic). Not deterred, we looked into beaches in this area and came across a few options. Of course we know that there's Oakland Beach, but I'm not a huge fan of salt water swimming and it's just not that great of an ocean beach. I remember visiting lakes all the time as a kid in northern Rhode Island...I figured that there must be SOMETHING comparable around here, so I did a quick Google search. It seems like there's three main freshwater swimming areas in Warwick...Warwick Pond, Gorton Pond, and Little Pond. Well, yesterday we decided to try out Warwick Pond as it's just down the street from us. After asking around, we discovered that, while there's no public beach on this pond, there's a place where people have access to the water for swimming and boat launching. Off of Lake Shore Drive, there's a little dirt road called "Wells Ave" on the map that goes right into the pond. It's not like you could go there and have a picnic, but it was fine for us! We parked on Lake Shore Drive, walked down, and hopped right in. Although a little murky and you should probably wear water shoes, the water was refreshing and perfect for a hot day. We want to try out the other two ponds as well, but we had a ton of fun just hanging out and swimming. We even saw some other people swimming there as well, and a few people came and launched boats while we were there. A pretty popular spot, it seems! One last thing to mention...while it was great for a short swim, somebody living in the area mentioned that the people living in the houses that are right next to this access road don't appreciate it when people get too loud. So it wouldn't be a good place for drinking or noisy late-night swimming -- mostly just for families, couples, solo swimming, etc.

The trails were a little too muddy and overgrown for me to fully explore them, but what I did do…read moreoffered some views and a quiet escape. Even had a couple deer dart in front of me on the trail.

Veterans Memorial Park is a picturesque, hidden gem, surprisingly located... in the middle of…read moreBarrington (funny for such a seemingly secluded locale). You can access the park via a dirt road, just off of West Street, next to the YMCA. Park at the YMCA or drive down the dirt road a bit to park inside. It is an easy jump skip from the East Bay Bike Path as well for those using a bipedal method of transportation. The trails are not extensive, only about 2.5 miles in total if you traverse all of the loops, but the views of Brickyard Pond are worth it. The 84-acre body of water sits on 230 acres of land, named for its history as a site of the brick-making industry in the area up until the 1940's. Due to hazardous structures in the water, swimming is not allowed. Fishing is allowed only certain times of the year since the pond is home to some herring spawning grounds. There is a boat launch as well as several points of access to the water for kayaking. Two trails, the Red and Green, make their way along the shore of the pond and into the forested acreage of the park. Summersweet plants flower everywhere along the trails, filling the air with their pleasant aroma. For the most part I stayed on trail but there were a number of unmarked routes leading who-knows-where. I explored some of these but didn't stray too far. The trails were well-marked with their colored blazes and arrow signs but with so many trails breaking off from the main loops, it was easy to get turned around. Well-kept, there were several bridges and walkways built into the path to skip over lazy moving streams and marshy areas. From their maps, it appears that several more trails looping around the pond are in the works, connecting the park to the bike patch directly. It will be wonderful once development is complete. Near the boat launch is a peaceful clearing with tables and park benches. A great place for a picnic or to simply kick back and soak up the outdoors. A nice find in downtown Barrington. As a side note: there was a surprising amount of litter in the parking lot inside the grounds... the trails were clean but some of the areas with grills and benches were visited by litter bugs and party animals. Trash, broken glass... dropped it down to 4-stars for me despite my enjoyable experience in the rest of the park.

Small little beach on Lake Tioque. It is shallow making it great for small children There are some…read morepicnic tables available and it can get crowded on hot summer days. The water is drained during certain parts of the year. Dogs are allowed, but not in the water during hours when there is a lifeguard there.

Completely forgot about this place that I had stumbled upon late last fall while walking my newly…read moreadopted pup. Fast forward to the end of May and was looking for somewhere to take LuLu to get her used to going into the water. She seems to like it a lot better than Oakland Beach. It's quiet and there's no tide coming in to scare her. We will be back

Will have to update once the weather warms up a bit, but this was a lovely little surprise find in…read morethe EG area. Immediately greeted by a small pond, which is always a nice feature for a walk through the woods. There are stairs down, and a decent amount to be prepared for that both starting and finishing your trip. There are also some "bridges" over waterfalls with visible openings. Certainly safe, but just a heads up. I took a short stroll around the pond and then up to the left, walking behind the water. There are trail markers which is helpful. A nice quiet spot to enjoy a little time out in nature if you happen to be in the area; oh and parking on site which is always a plus. Can't wait to come back and explore more in the Spring.

There's plenty of parking at the trail head as you start your hike. This is a fun, shorter trail…read moresystem that is well marked. Trails are cleared pretty well which makes it great for people of all abilities or families with smaller kiddos. There's a cool bridge beside a beautiful pond. Beyond that you can go to the right down to the rock structure remains of an old water mill (I believe it was a water mill) To the left off of the bridge, is a nice, clear trail that has some gradual incline. Along that route are parts of a kids story book that engages with passerby.

Right when I started walking towards the park, I was greeted with action: a mink was chasing a rat…read moreand eventually did have it for lunch. This led me to pay close attention to what other animals were around. I came across a couple birds, one more mink, and a lot of Canada geese, some of which were chilling on a house's lawn. They were fearless and started coming towards me but stopped about 6 feet away. The loop around the body of water is about half a mile so it makes for a perfect casual stroll; a lot of people were walking their dog, talking on the phone, or on a run. Two sides of this park has houses, and it seems like people respect the neighbor's privacy and peace since it was quiet. There's a dock to fish, along with other spots. There's a little library where you can take/drop off books. They have lots of benches along the way and the entire path is paved. There is a parking lot across the park; it seems like it belongs to a school so in the summer it's convenient to park there but it might be a different story during the school year.

A little disappointed. Was enjoying the nice weather while it lasts and this park came up. Alas,…read moreits not really much of a park. It's really just a lake with benches. Not that is a bad thing, but that doesn't make it a park. For a lake it's a nice getaway though.

After talking to a local at a beach I was excited to go here and swim in fresh water where I…read morewouldn't be all sticky and sandy afterward. This unfortunately is not the place to do that. It took me a while to find the parking - you need to drive on Rt. 1 south and turn into the lot right before the WAVE sign. There you'll find a small bathhouse and once you park you can follow the concrete path to the beach. Unfortunately the concrete path was cleaner than the beach, which had random trash everywhere. There is a small sandy part and a few shaded areas, which are nice on those hot days, like the day I went. I was ready to just jump into the pond, so I started to wade in and realized that the entire floor of the pond is covered with tall ferns. One of the ladies swimming talked about how in the past the city has cleaned the water of these and put out buoys of where you could swim, but that wasn't the case this year. Because it was so hot, I still waded up to my waist, but there was no way I was going to swim through the ferns. If anyone finds out that they've cleaned the water, let me know because I am definitely craving a fresh water swim.

Such a beautiful trail. I stumbled upon this one day when I was in the area and wanted to explore…read more It was very busy that day, I love when people get out into nature. Nice sized parking lot that is on rocks for sure. They used to have tons of bird houses but they're gone now- not sure why. But it's very cool under the trees a nice breeze, and so many areas where you can overlook water. Be cautious though, every trail I've ever done has different color marked trails for some odd reason this has 2 trails and they're both marked yellow which can cause for serious confusion. I didn't like this at all because if we weren't paying attention we could've ended up not following the path we entered. I'm not a use my phone type of person for a trail map, I simply want to enjoy my time use the tree cues and go about my walk. It's very clean, you run into all types of people here, families, fur babies, I even ran into a lady who had goats one time it was pretty cool. There is also from what I'm told a swan that practically owns this water, I was told it's been there for years. Very beautiful swan might I say. There's 2 water overlooks one is to the right when you pretty much first walk in, go to the right of the path, they have a bench to overlook but this is more like just a bunch of Lilly pads still pretty. But if you go much longer and stay pretty much to your right you will end up by the water and a big rock you can sit on, just be careful not to fall in. They also if you keep going ( it's hard to explain which "path" to take because as I said they're both yellow, who did this and why), but there is a buddy bridge which is so cute to honor pets who have passed. All in all I liked the trail just pay attention to what you're doing. I been twice and never went all the way, as the two yellow trails are confusing and I'm not that adventurous to get lost. Happy hiking!

Food was good. Diner style menu. Service is good. Welcoming. Prices reasonable. We get breakfast…read morethere on weekends.

3.5! A pretty little spot on Arnold Road. I have seen…read morepeople fishing here and enjoying picnics. There is a gentleman here that gives free fishing lessons and provides all the equipment. New boat access and I wouldn't be swimming in this water

The Trestle Trail, a section of the Washington Secondary Trail, is a wooded section of 'bike path'…read morethat connects the western end of the Coventry Greenway to the Moosup Valley Trail in CT. It follows an abandoned rail corridor and is part of the East Coast Greenway project which will ultimately link 25 urban cities between Maine and Florida. Well, that sounds like a challenge. We were able to visit on a beautiful autumn afternoon. There were lots of people out enjoying the day. Dog walkers (remember to bring your doggie poop bag to pick up after them please!) bike riders, folks on rollerblades, families, couples. This seems to be a popular outing location. There is a parking spot at 210 Flat River Road, and another, closer to CT, at 51 Hill Farm Road. The trail is paved, with the usual policy of walk on the left, ride on the right meaning you can see the bikes approaching you and get off the road for them to pass if there is no room to go around you. There is also a horse trail running along the sides in this section. From the lot on Hill Farm Road, following the path toward CT, you pass a large pond with small waterfall (which you can hear, but not see as it flows away from the path), then becomes wooded along both sides for quite a while. It does cross over or under a couple of roadways and a few houses but for the most part is a nice walk in the woods. Heading back toward Coventry/Warwick from this same parking lot, the path leads through more populated areas passing behind businesses and homes, although still wooded on one or both sides for a fair amount of time, passing by a camp ground and another lake. There are a couple more places to park along the Washington Secondary Trail path that are closer to town, including near the Coventry Library and behind the Paine House museum on Station Street. This link makes a nice way to commute on your bike within town and a lovely outing for family or place to get in your steps.

I purchased a paddleboard at The Kayak Centre 4 years ago. My experience then (and a few other…read moretimes since then for smaller purchases), was so great that even though I've moved to Cape Cod (1.5 hour drive away), when I was in the market for a kayak, I came back to The Kayak Centre. I called ahead and got excellent information and recommendations, and as I requested, they had the boats I wanted to try available when I came to check them out a couple of days later. I checked the boats out in the store and then did the in-water demo to try one of them out. You do have to pay for this, but I guess it makes sense as a bit of insurance in case you scratch or damage the boat and then don't end up buying it. And if you do buy the boat, they apply it to your total, so if you're serious about making a purchase, it's low-risk. I then looked at several accessories (new paddle, PFD, paddle float, skirt, roof rack, etc) and got a lot of great advice and information. They installed the roof rack I purchased and taught me tips on how to load and unload the boat on my own. Before this trip, I did shop around for a kayak and the attention and service I received at The Kayak Centre - from owner to seasoned employee to new employee to the waterfront staff to the installation guy, the service was amazing. They don't work on commission and are actual paddlers themselves, so you get real information and they customize the tips based on you personally. There were a few accessories that I was unsure about that they actually talked me out of buying. I could not be happier with my purchase and the service I received! I went into the store on a Friday afternoon in June and there was a steady flow of other customers, but I never felt like the staff was too busy or were rushing me. If you have as many questions as I did, I'd recommend avoiding the weekends, especially in the summer, because I'd bet they are really busy!

Lovely spot to kayak! Super friendly staff and brand new equipment! The area can be a little busy…read morewith boat traffic but still so fun!