Sakonnet Loop · RI-77

The quietest corner of the Rhode Island coast: RI-77 runs south from Tiverton with the Sakonnet River in view, through the colonial village of Tiverton Four Corners and Little Compton, to the end of the road at Sakonnet Point, where the 1884 lighthouse sits on a rock offshore. The loop comes back through Little Compton Commons and Adamsville and returns to Tiverton on RI-81 and RI-177. It's 29 miles on narrow farm roads with stone walls and little or no shoulder, so ride in a short group, and services are scarce south of Four Corners.

Tiverton Four Corners is a small colonial crossroads village listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with houses from the 1700s and early 1800s, and Gray's Ice Cream, which has been there since 1923. From there RI-77 keeps going south through Little Compton farmland, between stone walls, to Sakonnet Point. The lighthouse off the point is a sparkplug-style tower from 1884; it went dark in the 1950s and was relit in 1997 after a local group took it over.

Little Compton's roads are narrow, often with no shoulder, and they carry farm traffic and cyclists: ride in a short group and don't pass in a long line. The loop returns through Little Compton Commons and Adamsville and heads back to Tiverton on RI-81 and RI-177 (Bulgarmarsh Road). Don't follow RI-81 north past that turn, because it crosses into Massachusetts. Gas and food are scarce south of Four Corners, so plan your stops in Tiverton.