Kettle Pond Visitor Center — Attraction in Charlestown

We visited on a Saturday morning in mid-June 2025 around 9:30AM.

Depending on which direction you're coming from you may have to make a u-turn on the highway and go backwards to get into the parking lot. When you leave there is a light to let you go either direction.

There were plenty of spaces in the parking lot right next to the visitor center. We can early with the intention of hiking the ocean view trail from the parking lot. It was fairly short and easy with a very large observation tower at the end. We saw one group there when we arrived and as we were leaving another group showed up. If you're afraid of heights, it can be a little scary at the top.

We finished this in no time and waited by the visitor center before it opened. There is a nice little garden tot he right of the main entrance of the visitor center and had trails. We hung out here until it started to drizzle. They saw us waiting outside and let us in a few mins early with the rain starting. We met one of the staff members, John. He was fantastic to talk to. His wife drew/painted a number of the art works inside the visitor center. Absolutely amazing.

There are also a number of different Blue Goose Passport Cancellation stamps here for the National Fish & Wildlife Refuges. -Block Island National Wildlife Refuge -Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge John H. Chafee National Wildlife Refuge -Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge

There was a large area with ton of exhibits, many of which were interactive, and also a tank in the corner with fish in. Kids were allowed to help feed the fish in the morning so they enjoyed that. There is a little theater area as well for a film. There were activities everywhere and in the education center room, there were microscopes and stuff to touch and play with and books. You could easily spend over an hour in here if you wanted to do everything. We were on a tight schedule so we only stayed for about 30 mins.

The gift shop was quite small and lacking of variety. Also john was not the best when it came to the card reader but also I think it was having connectivity issues. Receipts were on paper and we offered to pay in cash to keep it simple.

Bathrooms are located inside the visitor center down the hall.

Overall if we were driving through we would probably stop by this visitor center again. It had just enough stuff to keep...

Enjoyed visiting here. Have a craft table with a variety of simple crafts and coloring pages. An information desk with maps in the area and a nice person running it. A small exhibit room with the different types habitats found in RI as RI truly does have a wide variety of habitats. The habitats were very nicely set up with the common animals found in each as well as the common plants. The visitor center has bathrooms and a small conference room area as well as a nice sized parking lot with a trail head across from the center. There is a handful of trails as well. We did the pond trail and it was well marked and enjoyable. Easily spend an hour or two...

An awesome place to stop off and explore! Although the center itself is small, take your time and walk through the main room. Don't forget to open the drawers of each diorama as they have little informational cards and hands on learning for kids inside. The walk to the overlook was beautiful, as well as the view from it! There was a volunteer that was extremely helpful and knowledgeable about the area and other nature preserves to visit. Within the preserve are a number of walking trails, so if you have little ones, this is a good place to get them...