BEAVERTAIL STATE PARK, Rhode Island (AP) -- The salt water breeze cools the heat from the afternoon sun and fans the sweet smell of grilled hot Italian sausages, peppers and onions, wafting around us from the portable grills. We're quickly building up an appetite for a perfect picnic.
But as we sit in our folding chairs, precariously perched on the rocky cliffs above Narragansett Bay, we're already feasting on the panoramic ocean view below.
Favorite picnic spots are special and a very individual thing, but to find a picnic place as perfect as Beavertail State Park in Rhode Island, we'd have to travel across America and find a secluded spot along the Pacific. Certainly worth the trip, but this view of New England's rocky right coast will do just fine any summer day.
Located on the southernmost tip of Conanicut Island near Jamestown -- nestled between historic Newport and Rhode Island's west bay -- Beavertail offers a spectacular view of the Ocean State's coastline where Narragansett Bay meets the Atlantic.
Tourists and locals come to Beavertail year-round, and every visit produces a look as different as the changing weather. But the best way to see it is perched on the rocky cliffs above pounding surf, enjoying a picnic lunch in the summertime.
I must admit, the first time I visited Beavertail, I was surprised to see people balancing those aluminum chairs on the uneven rocks. Quickly, the lasting beauty of this craggy seascape swept away any concerns we may have harbored. Geologists say these rocks were formed over 500 million years ago, and they're not going anywhere.
Besides the front row seat to the ocean's show, the well-weathered, outcropped cliffs also provide a sanctuary for shorebirds to raise their young and coexist with people in a protected environment. Make no mistake; the scenery is why most people come here. Whether it's adventurously sitting on the cliffs, sunbathing on the rocks below, or just viewing from your car at one of four overlooks, the vista stirs the soul and quiets the mind.
Even on peak summer weekends, chances are you'll find ample parking and rocks to call your own. On the grass above the water, against the backdrop of an old lighthouse, families gather, light grills or open picnic baskets and coolers, spread blankets or unfold chairs, and kick back. Children frolic on the grounds, and hand-holding couples carefully make their way down the paths to the rocky cliffs to view the foamy sea hurtling against the rocks.
For many, the peaceful park is a respite from more hectic outings elsewhere to see Newport's Cliff Walk or the mansion tours. Here the passing view includes a parade of scores of sailboats and a fewer number of great ships, traversing up the channel with cargoes bound for Quonset Point, or the Port of Providence or heading back down into the Atlantic. The day ends in spectacular sunsets.
The 170-acre state park also offers hiking and biking trails, saltwater fishing, and a naturalist program. The park grounds, accessed by a narrow road that wraps around it, are also home to Beavertail Lighthouse, said to be America's third lighthouse in longevity and Rhode Island's first. Built in 1749, burned by the British as they fled in Revolutionary War time, rebuilt about 1856, and automated in 1972, it still guides ships passing between the Atlantic and Narragansett Bay. The Lighthouse features a small marine exhibit and museum open to the public, but it's a brief diversion to the serenity of the sea and the anticipation of each crashing wave.
Rhode Island's nickname, the Ocean State, comes from its hundreds of miles of horseshoe-shaped ocean shoreline that snakes along both sides of Narragansett Bay. State parks with ocean views up and down the coast of Rhode Island are many and close between, and they're all beautiful in their own way, but Beavertail is my favorite.