07/06/2006 01:00 AM EDT

BY KATHERINE IMBRIE
Journal Staff Writer

One of the top tourist attractions in Newport has no advertising budget and only rarely shows up in magazine spreads on the city, which tend to focus instead on mansions, boutiques, restaurants and inns.

But that doesn't keep people from finding the Cliff Walk, despite few signs leading to it, little convenient parking, and no public facilities other than a couple of portable toilets halfway along.

People love the Cliff Walk. It is simply a 3.5-mile path, but there is much more to it than that. It represents a connection between people and the majestic natural beauty of ocean meeting rock cliffs, of roses tumbling wild down to deep tide pools tucked among the rocks, of vistas to forever. It is unique as the only National Recreation Trail in a National Historic District.

Ever since the first Native Americans walked the path to tend their fishing nets or to enjoy the view, people have embraced Cliff Walk, refusing to give it up to private interests despite many attempts over more than a century to use fences and legal challenges to discourage public use.

Interestingly, the Walk is not on public land. It is a legally protected public right-of-way over private land, much of it some of the priciest real estate in one of the priciest cities in the nation.

You do see fences along it, especially at the northern and more heavily used end, from Memorial Boulevard (where there is no dedicated parking area) to Ruggles Avenue in the area of The Breakers. But the fences stand between the path and private property, not between the public and the path. At the wilder and even more beautiful southern end -- a part of the path that few go to because walking it requires some fancy footwork over rocks -- there are fewer fences, and finally none in the area of Ledge Road and the private mansion called The Waves.

Around that southern tip, from The Waves to the eastern end of Bailey's Beach Club, there are no fences at all, and at last a Cliff Walker can see pretty much what those Native Americans saw, at least when they cast their eyes toward the sea: Sheer rugged beauty.

The story of the Cliff Walk is beautifully told in a Web site of the Friends of the Waterfront, www.cliffwalk.com, the first place anyone should go if they want to know the path's history and particulars. The Friends group also endeavors to raise money and advocate for public funding to continue to maintain and improve the Cliff Walk -- a necessity because the path is constantly in danger of erosion damage from the sea side, from occasional attempts at private encroachment from the land side, and from a lack of any consistent political constituency to support it.

As a result, taking care of the Cliff Walk over more than a century has been a hit-or-miss thing, sometimes achieved with federal dollars, sometimes with city ones, sometimes with private help (as with the reconstruction of the spectacular stairway at Narragansett Avenue called Forty Steps).

Over the past year or so, much of the southern end of the path was -- in almost invisible ways -- shored up and made safer for the public to use, so there is no better time than right now to explore the whole of the Cliff Walk.

Hard-won access

If you already know the northern end -- as many Rhode Islanders do -- then take a trolley from anywhere on the city's loop route to the southern end, getting off near the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Coggeshall Avenue, where there is a small area for parking only bicycles and motorcycles -- no cars.

This is the eastern end of private Bailey's Beach, at the end of the western hook of Bellevue Avenue -- a hard-won public access to a 50-foot piece of prime sandy beach right next to Bailey's.

An opening in the hedge surrounding the bike-parking area leads along a seawall beside the beach to the beginning of the Cliff Walk, well marked with new signs as part of the recent reconstruction.

The path here is dirt, with wild roses on either side, and bunnies romping on the private lawns to your left. You will be pretty much alone to enjoy the scene, as few people find this part of the Cliff Walk.

Around the rocky tip where the spooky mansion called The Waves is, you'll find hand-painted instructions for "Cliff Walk" on the stones, and a trail of 4-inch bronze markers indicating the public right-of-way.

Then, crossing Ledge Road (no parking on the street there either), you continue around a rocky peninsula similar to Pemaquid in Maine. It takes a little bit of vigilance to keep your eye on the Cliff Walk route here, but soon the dirt path resumes, taking you to Rough Point, where you see the back lawn and terrace that belonged to the tobacco heiress Doris Duke.

This part of the Cliff Walk is the most rugged, and you will need to step over rocks and watch for slippery areas. But for anyone with even a mild degree of fitness, it is not hard to do, and the sights you will see are well worth the effort.

On a recent visit, I talked with a dozen people, some from Rhode Island, many others from Florida, North Carolina, Chicago, and Korea, who said that walking the path was the most unforgettable part of their Newport experience.

One couple, Lori and Rick Adams of Charlotte, N.C., are regular visitors to Newport but hadn't realized until they took a tour of Rough Point that the Cliff Walk extended so far. They were making a morning of walking the entire path in a loop beginning and ending at Thames Street on the harbor, a distance of perhaps eight miles.

Fairy-tale tunnel

Through dark, damp tunnels and a fairy-tale one at Gull Rock that looks made for Hobbits, over an arched bridge and along secret coves, the Cliff Walk offers a natural series of adventures for children, and for the child in all of us. Emerging at the north end of the Gull Rock tunnel, you see the exotic red and green curlicue pagoda of Mrs. Vanderbilt's Chinese Tea House, on the grounds of the Preservation Society's Marble House mansion, a sight that makes the fairy tale complete.

You can't get onto the grounds of Marble House from Cliff Walk, but other mansions along the way do open their back gates to let Cliff Walkers in. Among them is The Astors' Beechwood mansion, the one where actors portray aristocratic guests and Astor servants. A sign at the gate invites people to come on in for something cold to drink from the gift shop, or to sit and rest in wicker chairs on the lawn.

At Ruggles Avenue, where The Breakers mansion is, you enter the better-known part of Cliff Walk, its northern end. There will be more people, but still rarely what could be called a crowd. Many people regularly jog it.

The only place you may see many people is at the end of Narragansett Avenue, at the stairway to the sea called Forty Steps. There is street parking for perhaps 50 cars at the end of Narragansett, and this is where the portable toilets are. There's another trolley stop at the intersection with Ochre Point Avenue.

North of Forty Steps, it's only a short distance to Memorial Boulevard and the Easton's Beach end of the Cliff Walk. (The nearest trolley stop is a short walk west at the intersection of Bellevue Avenue.)

The lovely hotel you pass right on the walk, overlooking the beach, is The Chanler, restored a few years ago as a top-of-the-line luxury property catering to wealthy out-of-towners. The Chanler's rooms cost hundreds a night, but its pergola-topped Terrazza patio restaurant is open to the breezes -- and to any tired and thirsty foot-traveler who wants to climb a few flower-bordered steps to reach it.

A lobster-salad sandwich, a glass of rose, and perhaps a tall tumbler of iced tea put a truly Newport finish to the end of a Cliff Walk hike -- a finale that the Native Americans who started it all centuries ago never could have imagined.

kimbrie@projo.com / (401) 277-7630

If you go

Except for some 50 street spaces at the eastern end of Narragansett Avenue, there is no parking convenient to the Cliff Walk.

You can reach it by bicycle or motorcycle (parking at the pull-out at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Bellevue Avenue), or by taking a ride on one of Newport's several-times-hourly trolleys, beginning at the Gateway Visitor Center on America's Cup Avenue.

Each ride costs $1.50; an all-day ticket allowing you to get on and off wherever you like is $6.

For more information, visit www.gonewport.com or call (800) 976-5122.