6 Picture Perfect Leaf-Peeping Spots For Paparazzi

Monday, October 25, 2010

GoLocalProv Lifestyle Editor Andrea E. McHugh

There’s a reason why this time of year, Rhode Island receives an influx of out of state shutterbugs looking to capture our autumnal grandeur. As we enter peak foliage season, we see once banal landscapes painted in rich, brilliant hues, allowing even the most amateur photographer the opportunity to capture an unforgettable image and release their inner Eliot Porter. Here are a half-dozen Rhode Island locales ripe for photography:

1. Lincoln Woods in Blackstone Valley

This 627-acre park just outside of Providence includes all of picturesque Olney Pond and plenty of leaf-covered paths to wander. Be sure to take in Slater Mill for a shot of quintessenital New England.

2. Rt. 77 Tiverton/Little Compton

We suggested this bucolic country road as one of our http://www.golocalprov.com/lifestyle/10-things-to-do-this-fall/">10 Things to Do This Fall guide, but this time of year, the experience is even more extraordinary. Photographer James Clayton Sattel said, “I get some good colors visiting roadside stands, pumpkin fields and farms,” and this stretch along the Sakonnet Peninsula has no shortage of any of the three.

3. On Campus

Sattlel recommended gates, lamp-posts, stone walls and tree-lined drives for picturesque scenes as they all tend to host climbing ivy which “hold good color here, more so then the trees,” and college campuses are hot beds of all four elements. Salve Regina University, perched at the edge of the Atlantic in Newport, and Brown University and its surrounding historic downown neighborhood are both stand-outs.

4. Conanicut Island

With landscapes as diversified as farmland and marshes to lighthouses and wildlife preserves, shooting in Jamestown may just fill up your memory card. Dissect the island with a journey down pastoral North Road and circle around East Main Road for views of Potter Cove. Take in the small-town feel of Narragansett Avenue and journey out to Mackerel Cove, Fort Getty and the southernmost tip of the island--Beavertail State Park and the lighthouse.

5. Wilcox Park, Westerly

"The people shall have a park," declared Harriet Wilcox in 1898, as so it was. This time of year, the tree-lined park in the heart of Westerly's business district is a charmingly Rockwellian landscape with Japanese maples, Red Horsechestnuts and Witch hazels all showing fall at its finest.

6. Arcadia Management Area, Exeter

Rhode Island’s largest protected area, Arcadia welcomes bikers, hikers and walkers to check out its myriad habitats including deciduous forest, swamps, shrub wetlands, marshes, and open bodies of water. A nearly 7-mile trail weaves through some of the most striking milieus in Southern New England.