With views of three states and two lighthouses, a walk out to Napatree Point is priceless.

From the parking lot in Watch Hill, the walk along the beach to the point takes about 30 minutes. That’s at low tide when the footing is firm near the water.

The walk starts in Watch Hill which offers limited parking in the summer, so if you go during tourist season, plan to make the walk at dawn or at night when there is a full moon.

During the other three seasons, there is ample parking. And the beach is even more spectacular because of the presence of wildflowers, migrating birds in spring and fall, butterflies in August and September, and the absence of crowds.

During the winter, you may have the beach to yourself.

Park your car at the end of the largest parking lot in Watch Hill, near the Watch Hill Yacht Club. Between the chain-link fence and the harbor is a path. If the wind is off the ocean, you can walk along the harbor side to the point.

To walk along the beach, take a sharp left turn soon after the chain-link fence and climb the dune along one of the paths with signs warning about ticks. (They aren’t kidding; there are lots of ticks in the dunes.) Please stay on a path to prevent dune erosion.

At the top of the path, with the surf below, pause to take in the view.

To the left is Watch Hill Light in Rhode Island; you can take a walk over there later. To the right, in the distance, is Latimer Light in Connecticut. The island in front of you is Fishers Island, and it’s in New York. The water is Long Island Sound.

The walk to the point is about 1.5 miles along the beach. At the point, the footing becomes rocky. There used to be a road out here to Fort Mansfield, in operation from 1901 to 1909, part of a series of forts on the Sound, designed to protect New York City.

After the fort was sold and demolished, houses were built on the spit of land leading to the point. The hurricane of 1938 destroyed the houses and killed 15 people. It was horrific, as the storm swept unprepared residents into the water.

If you want to climb the rocks and go around the point, you can return to Watch Hill by walking along Little Narragansett Bay.

During the summer, here, the air is filled with the fragrance of beach roses. During the fall, foragers collect the Vitamin-C rich rose hips to make jam and rose-hip tea, delicious with local honey.

The autumn dunes are aflame with brilliant stands of goldenrod. On the Sound in autumn, striped bass and bluefish are migrating, attracting anglers from all over the east coast and as far away as London.

Fall is the favorite season of bird watchers, too. They can see more than 100 hawks, representing several species, at Napatree Point on a good day.

Back in Watch Hill, most of the restaurants close for the winter, but nearby on Route 1A, The Cooked Goose is open year-around, seven days a week, serving incredibly delicious soups and sandwiches, reasonably priced, with wine, beer or soft drinks. The restaurant also has an amazingly diverse customer base, from wealthy Watch Hill ladies to boat-yard workers. In the morning, it serves fishermen who have been casting on the beach through the previous night.

The anglers are hungry: They have made the round-trip hike to Napatree Point wearing heavy, chest-high wading boots.

The walk is priceless.

tmeade@projo.com