Cape Cod Nature Hikes (Wellfleet and Eastham)

We love Cape Cod because of the wonderful outdoors: sunshine, sand dunes, salt spray, pine trees, campfires, foggy mornings, beach roses.  With my parents now living on the Cape, we have been lucky to get to know Cape Cod more deeply, beyond the standard tourist lists of best beaches and clam shacks and mini golf.  Below are some of the outdoor must-dos we heartily recommend whether for locals or for your summer vacation week!  While we're wearing our cold-weather clothes in many of the photos below, these nature walks are just as great in the summer vacation season!

Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail, 195 Marconi Station Road, Wellfleet, MA

Part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, the highlight of this trail is the boardwalk that winds through the atmospheric White Cedar Swamp.  It's an otherworldly landscape that our pictures below don't do justice, and which are certainly different from what you expect on the Cape.  This is an easy, mostly level walk, and returns in a loop, only 1.2 miles round trip.  Upon returning to the parking area, there's a short boardwalk to a scenic overlook across the ocean that we also appreciated.  Free parking lot and free to explore.  

Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, 291 South Highway, South Wellfleet, MA

This Mass Audubon preserve is my favorite, and we've enjoyed it in all seasons.  It's become an annual tradition to walk here on Thanksgiving morning to earn our turkey and mashed potato calories, but this sanctuary is wonderful in the summer too, when the fiddler crabs are scuttling about.  The trails lead past a whale skeleton (!), through pine woodlands and out over a salt marsh.  In the summer the nature center is open and has aquariums with live creatures and a big window overlooking the variety of birds that flock to the feeders.  Big parking lot, free for Audubon members, admission for non-members supports nature preservation ($5 adults, $3 children and seniors 65+).  5 miles of trails to explore, there are plenty of 1-2 mile loops that are easy walks for little legs.

 Fort Hill Trail, 70 Fort Hill Road, Eastham, MA

Just past the Captain Penniman House, a historic whalers house built in 1868, there are small parking lots at the top of the hill with beautiful sweeping views across open fields down to a salt estuary.  The trails that start from here are mostly through fields and along the edge of the water.  Lots of wildflowers.  Not a lot of shade, so better on an overcast day or in the shoulder (cooler) seasons.  Free parking, free to explore, 1 mile loop.

Nauset Marsh Trail, Eastham, MA

We parked at the parking lot at the Doane Rock Picnic Area, and spent a few minutes letting the kids try to figure out how to climb Doane Rock (which, for the geology fans out there, is an enormous glacial erratic, a 30-ft diameter rock left behind by passing glaciers).  We then continued through the forest, out along the boardwalk at the edge of Salt Pond, past the scenic Coast Guard Station building, out onto Coast Guard beach, and back again.  A short and easy walk for little legs, with varied scenery.