Seaside to city streets, R.I. is big on walking trails

You think walking in Newport and what springs to mind? Cliff Walk, sure, but try out a Newport Harbor walk, put together by Friends of the Waterfront, particularly the north walk that covers the historic residential Point Section, the original Colonial city center that remained relatively unscathed when the British broke up the docks and burned them for heat in the Revolutionary War. There is much to see, including Gravelly Point at the end of Long Wharf, where pirates were hanged and President Washington once landed on what was subsequently named Washington Street. Historic homes on the less than 3-mile walk include Hunter House, used over the years by Tories, the French Navy, doctors, and boarding nuns. At the end is Battery Park and one of the best sunset views in the city. www.newportharborwalk.com.

It makes sense that most of the state-owned Great Swamp Wildlife Management Area, much of which is in South Kingston and partly juts into Richmond, is wetlands, 2,262 acres of it in a preserve of less than 3,500 acres. But you can see lots of it with well-maintained trails coursing through the spongy low-lying land, in a place dominated by red swamp maples. The area is popular with bikers and hikers; the South County Bike Path brushes by its northeast corner. 277 Great Neck Road, West Kingston, 401-789-7481.

You have your Narragansett Bay and in Watch Hill, a cozy village in Westerly in the farthest southwestern corner of the state, you have Little Narragansett Bay, a waterway best seen by walking along the half-mile-long Napatree Beach. At the end of Fort Road is a nature trail that takes hikers out to historic Napatree Point where they can see the ruins of Fort Mansfield, an old coastal artillery post. Resorts and beach cottages dotted this area until the Hurricane of 1938 wiped them out.

Paul E. Kandarian can be reached at kandarian@ globe.com.