Ocean Road & Boston Neck · RI-1A

A loop from Wickford that follows the water south: Boston Neck Road (RI-1A) runs past Rome Point, Casey Farm and Saunderstown to Narragansett Pier and the stone arch of The Towers, then Ocean Road hugs the rocky shore past Black Point and Scarborough Beach to the Point Judith lighthouse. The return goes through Galilee and Wakefield and comes back north on US-1 by the Hannah Robinson Tower. It's 32 miles. In summer the Pier and the beaches fill up, and Ocean Road can close in storms when the sea comes over the Narragansett sea wall.

Wickford, where the loop starts and ends, is a harbor village with one of the largest collections of 18th-century houses in the Northeast, listed on the National Register in 1974. At Narragansett Pier the route passes under The Towers, the stone arch that crosses Ocean Road. It was the entrance to the Narragansett Pier Casino, designed by McKim, Mead & White in the 1880s, and it's what survived the fire of 1900. Farther south, Black Point is a state fishing area with trails along the rocks and the ruins of an old mansion.

The Point Judith lighthouse marks the end of Ocean Road; its octagonal tower was first lit in 1857, and there's a small parking lot by the grounds. On the way back north, the Hannah Robinson Tower on US-1, a wooden lookout built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1938 and rebuilt in the late 1980s, looks out over Narragansett Bay. In summer the Pier and the state beaches fill up and charge for parking, and Ocean Road can be closed during storms when waves come over the sea wall.