PORTSMOUTH After hiking most of the winter on Rhode Island’s mainland, I traveled to Aquidneck Island to explore a different landscape. I was not disappointed by the beautiful scenery and the history.
The Gentleman Farms owned in the late 1800s by the Vanderbilt, Taylor and Barstow families stretched as far as the eye could see and down gentle, green slopes to the Sakonnet River.
The stone walls, farm lanes, cart paths, sweeping fields and other evidence of the land’s rich past are still visible while walking the Sakonnet Greenway Trail.
The greenway includes 10 miles of public trails that loop through woods, pastures and marshland and around a golf course, soccer fields and still-active farms.