John B Hudson Trail

The John B Hudson Trail is the flagship hiking route in Arcadia Management Area, Rhode Island's largest tract of public land at nearly 14,000 acres. This classic loop explores the full ecological diversity of the Arcadia landscape, beginning at the Arcadia picnic area and quickly reaching Roaring Brook, a fast-moving rocky stream that serves as one of the trail's most memorable features. The brook crashes over mossy boulders in a series of small cascades before the trail climbs into upland forest dominated by chestnut oak, red maple, and white pine. Throughout the loop, stone walls constructed by 18th and 19th century farmers cross the forest in dense networks, a haunting reminder that much of this land was once open farmland before the agricultural abandonment that swept southern New England after the Civil War. The trail traverses several glacially formed ridges and swales, passing kettle ponds and beaver-impounded wetlands that host wood ducks, hooded mergansers, and great blue herons. Arcadia's extensive network of interconnecting trails provides numerous options for shortening or extending the Hudson Loop, making it easy to tailor the route to available time and energy. Spring wildflowers are abundant—particularly bloodroot, hepatica, and wild ginger along the brook margins. Fall foliage here rivals any location in southern New England, with the sugar maple and red maple canopy igniting in brilliant orange and scarlet from mid-October.