![]() ![]() ![]() The Seashore’s Province Lands area, which has been under government protection since 1714, has for more than a century attracted artists and writers for its seclusion, light, and mood. They squatted on the unwanted sands or slept in the shacks, and mastered the light and the mood. Cummings Jack Kerouac Mary Oliver Jackson Pollock Willem de Kooning and, perhaps most important, Henry Beston, whose 1928 book, The Outermost House, brought attention to the sheer wild beauty among the sweeping dunes. Other artists and writers soon followed and never stopped: Harry Kemp, known as the “poet of the dunes” E.E. ![]() He bought a dune shack, hunkered down in the silence, and set out to write Anna Christie and The Hairy Ape, two of his most famous works. “A grand place to be alone and undisturbed,” is how the playwright Eugene O’Neill described the Province Lands in 1919. I galloped up the sand to find a stretch just like it all around me, an expansive brown landscape that seemed like another galaxy away from Provincetown’s crowded center but in reality was only a few miles from the souvenir shops, bars, and restaurants. I arrived without a plan or a map, venturing along a short path that cut through a thick forest, which eventually led me to the base of a large dune. Which is how on a weekday afternoon, I parked at the Snail Road access trail off Route 6 in Provincetown and began walking. As public use of the Seashore takes many forms, so does work to protect the area. An empty beach, a quiet forest, an endless expanse of sand and weather-beaten shacks. “You just have to learn to deal with it.”īut there was another Cape, he told me-one you could find if you were willing to trek off the touristed path. “The Cape in summer,” a longtime Eastham resident told me, with the resignation of someone who’d given up hope that the pressure would ever ease. Along the way I didn’t see another soul, a welcome solitude.įor two days I’d navigated traffic and tourists: the throngs of fellow visitors on Provincetown’s Commercial Street the afternoon jam of cars packing Route 6 in Wellfleet the army of beach seekers at Marconi. It had been a meandering journey, slow and uncertain as I traipsed around scrubby trees and wavy patches of dune grass, climbed and scampered down small hills of sand, all in an effort to make it to the sea. ![]() For the past 45 minutes I’d hiked under an intense July sun, through the sandy landscape in a southern section of the Province Lands, a barren, beautiful, 3,000-acre piece of Cape Cod National Seashore in Provincetown, Massachusetts. There is no entrance fee for active duty military and their dependents with proper ID, nor for any children under the age of 16.The weathered dune shack appeared like a beacon, rising out of the sand as though it had been waiting for me. The pass is good for one full year from the month of purchase and allows entrance for the pass holder and additional passengers in a single private non-commercial vehicle, or pass holder plus three adults when entering on foot or bicycle.ĭaily Vehicle Entrance Fee $25: Pass is for one private, non-commercial vehicle - passenger cars, pickup trucks, RVs and vans.ĭaily Motorcycle Entrance Fee $20: Pass is for one motorcycle.ĭaily Bicycle or On-Foot Entrance Fee $15: Pass is for one person 16 years of age or older - entering on foot or by bicycle. If you plan to hit the Seashore beaches frequently, the Cape Cod National Seashore Annual Pass ($60) seems like a really good deal. You don't need a town beach sticker or have to prove residency. Seashore beaches are open to everyone, as long as they are willing to pay to get in. One thing I really like is the Seashore's easy-to-understand fee system. One thing to remember: with the arguable exception of Herring Cove Beach and maybe Race Point Beach, Seashore beaches are located on the open Atlantic, so waves and chilly water can be challenges. And the Cape Cod National Seashore beaches, located on the Outer Cape, offer some big advantages (like awesome natural beauty, pretty good bathrooms and handy outdoor showers to rinse off the sand) that make them winners from the get-go. Folks are very particular about their favorite beaches and I say "hurrah!" to that sentiment. There are no clunkers when it comes to Cape Cod National Seashore beaches-I've had wicked good times at all of them! But which one is the best? I'm going to try to sort it out in this list.įirst of all, I expect wild disagreement with these rankings. ![]()
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