Cape Cod National Seashore

Established by President John F Kennedy in 1961, the Cape Cod National Seashore includes 43,000 acres of ponds, woods, marshlands and beaches. The Cape Cod National Seashore is found on the Eastern edge of the Outer Cape in the towns of Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans and Chatham. Our adventure in the Cape Cod National Seashore began as it does for many people: at the Salt Pond Visitor Center just off of Route 6 in Eastham. We did our usual National Park acclimatization routine: speaking with park rangers about what’s going on, best places to go, picking up maps and scoping out the gift shop. Now that we were armed to the teeth with information we decided to head down to the beach and see what all the fuss was about. We ended up going up the road a bit to Nauset Light Beach (where there is also the iconic Nauset Light). We enjoyed a picnic lunch with the sand between our toes. It was a sunny day, and despite being mid-October, the weather was borderline warm.

After a while we decided to head north a bit further and explore Marconi Beach. Here we strolled the surf and scoured the sand for sea shells and treasures to take home. We were joined by a few seals who were swimming just off shore. You can see the head of one in the bottom left photograph above. They were about ten or so feet in length and enjoyed sunning themselves along the top of the water, swimming back and forth.

At the end of the day we piled back into the car (attempting to not take too much sand with us) and headed back to the cottage. Along the way we stopped to pick up some steamers (aka mussels), clam cakes and chowder for dinner. Everything was delicious, and the steamers were surprisingly easy to cook. It was a perfect way to end our Cape Cod National Seashore day trip.