Our Environment: “Sunsets at Salter Grove” by Scott Turner
Sunday, December 22, 2019
When Rachel and Noah, our two children, dash out to snap sunset pictures besides Narragansett Bay, we never ask where they go to capture beautiful images of sundown by the sea.
By accident last week, I found the place. It’s called Salter Grove Memorial State Park in Warwick. Among the park’s features is a breakwater/jetty into the bay that I’ve learned is particularly popular during the warmer months.
I visited on a sunlit, 40-degree afternoon. The tide was out, exposing extensive mudflats, some of it covered in mats of the green algae known as sea lettuce. I walked out toward the jetty, appreciating how a clump of gray birch beside granite bedrock gave the trail a Northern Woods look even though it was 100 feet from a salt marsh.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTI stopped to watch five Song Sparrows peck at the exposed mud. There are coves on each side of the path. One featured the sea lettuce, while the other was mostly filled with water, and harboring more than 50 Mute Swans. Also, in that cove was a raft of some 200 Scaup, a small diving duck that congregates on the Bay every winter.
For a relatively small park, I found lots to observe and inspect. For example, with the tide out, I examined the relatively large oysters clinging to base of some of the rocks by the jetty. As is common in the Upper Bay, there were piles of slipper shells, with mussel shells mixed in.
Friends of Salter Grove have labeled plants in the park, giving the paths an arboretum-like feel. I learned that among native flowers in Salter Grove are calico aster, white wood Aster, Canadian hawkweed, evening primrose, maritime marsh elder, Virginia creeper, early goldenrod, smooth goldenrod, and seaside goldenrod.
Of course, all of the specimens that I found were brown, dried or otherwise weathered away.
The park also contains more than its share of invasive plants such as Asiatic bittersweet, tree-of-heaven, curly dock, and common wormwort.
If you intend to visit the jetty, my advice is two-fold. First be very careful climbing onto, around and off it. The jetty is a lovely avenue into the bay but it’s got some significant crevices amid sharp rocks. Second, given that it’s in a tidal area, you can get stuck out there, and don’t try walking over the mud to get back to shore. You’ll sink in.
Heading south over the jetty, I reached some natural hummocks of rocky ground. At high tide, these outcrops probably become islands. This weathered rock, with glacial grooves and other striations was fun to explore. I especially liked finding “puddingstone,” which is a sedimentary mix of gravel and boulder that displays rounded pebbles amidst chunks of stone.
The wind whipped rather wickedly, which suggested, given that the sun would soon set, that I hustle back to dry land.
Before leaving the park, I took a few minutes to investigate its upland portion. It’s a wooded plateau of exposed bedrock and scattered large oaks, with a looping trail (with more labeled plants) that passes a small stream and freshwater pond that trickles to the bay.
As the sun went down, a golden light bathed the park, illuminating the golden stems of native marsh grass along the coves. Very becoming.
So how did I learn that Salter Grove was where my kids captured sunset photos? When I got home I texted the family images of the park. In response, I received a “Daaaad, that’s where we go for our sunset shots” (which the kids share). Ah, of course, the jetty, the golden light, the bay. As a father, I was reminded to pay more attention to both what the kids were up to and to what they shared.
Scott Turner is a Providence-based writer and communications professional. For more than a decade he wrote for the Providence Journal and we welcome him to GoLocalProv.com.
Related Articles
- Our Environment: “Red Spotted Delight” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “Migration - A Sign of Summer Turning into Fall” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “Humbling Ocean Waves” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “In Celebration of Community” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “The Scented City” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “Beating It from Providence” By Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “Leaving the Nest” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “Secret Frenchtown Park” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “A Walk Along the Turner Reservoir Trail” By Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “Fire Kills” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “The Waka-Waka Wake Up Call” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “A Trek Through Cranberry Vines” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “The American Robin Arrives” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “Skunked” by Scott Turner
- Our Environment: “A Moment of Tranquility” by Scott Turner
