Posted By auntie on March 24, 2014

1.72 miles; south kingstown, ri

this property in south kingstown, owned by the south kingstown land trust, is perfectly lovely! it goes through thickets and tunnels of mountain laurel (note to self, come back when they’re in bloom) and mature white pines, and follows a stretch along the eastern shore of yawgoo pond. too bad it’s so short, or i’d come back more often.

old cemetery

there’s an old, tumbled-down cemetery along the trail with the most prominent, and readable, stones belonging to mary and joshua wells. mary died in 1887 at the age of 82, and joshua made it into the 20th century, dying in 1903. funny how in these old cemeteries you generally find either very young people, babies and children, really, or very old people. i guess it was a pretty healthy lifestyle if you could make it out of childhood.

yawgoo pond

the trail itself is pretty clearly marked, except for a couple places. the first place that seems iffy is when you cross mud brook on a slightly dicey-looking bridge and come immediately to a big old gate. the trail does continue past the gate, but you have to go a ways before you see the first blaze that confirms this.

hidden waterfall

the second time the blazes let me down, i was kind of glad they did. i came to a spot where there seemed to be a fork, and no blazes to indicate the correct direction to continue, but while i was there i spied a very nicely-fashioned bridge, an eagle scout project, that crosses the chickasheen brook. and just upstream from the bridge, i could hear but not really see falling water. further exploration brought me to a tiny hidden waterfall under a rhododendron thicket. it was a very pretty little spot. by studying the map, i determined that the path from the bridge was not part of the loop, so i backtracked and followed the trail to the northeast away from the bridge and the waterfall. there was, however, a trail that seemed to continue from the bridge, and next visit i will have to explore it further to see where it goes.

i have added yawgoo pond trail to the hikefinder.

UPDATE: forgot to mention that this trail is on my list of “hikes i’d like to do in 2014.” i made a custom google map that has these marked out. you can see it here.

Categories: Rhode Island, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 2 miles or less, RI, South Kingstown RI