Visited: Saturday, September 15th - Sunday, September 16th, 2012
I've been to Cape Cod before, previously, just twice. Two enjoyable times, to be sure, but the traffic makes it uninteresting for me from Memorial Day to Labor Day. And while I had visited the Marconi site, that was really all of the national seashore I'd seen previously. I'd also not arranged either previous trip there.
So in many ways, this was my first real experience with the Cape, and certainly my first experience with the NPS site, and I must say - it's very enjoyable.
We started with the visitor center in Eastham, which runs five films on a fixed schedule; we hit the film on the geology of the cape, in addition to the one on Marconi, plus the nice museum at the site. We then went up to Provincetown to visit the Old Harbor Life-Saving Station, hitting some bad traffic on the way (well, how else would we have known we were on the cape?), but getting there in time to see a fascinating remnant of America's past. Of particular interest was a map showing wrecks up through 1900, and how the building of the Cape Cod Canal essentially eliminated the wrecks - and thus the need for these stations. As we crossed the canal, I'd been wondering what lead to it being built; unlike the Erie or Ohio canals, it wasn't for commerce, but - for safety.
We then hit the Province Lands visitors center, which shows the same films on demand; we asked for Thoreau's Cape, which was excellent - it's a very different view of the cape. The visitor center also has an excellent observation tower. We then visited downtown Provincetown for the evening before heading to our hotel, in North Truro.
Finally, we joined the ranger-led hike "Shoreline Stroll", around Great Island, this (Sunday) morning. It was fascinating and well worthwhile in and of itself - but with the high tide we got to view:
* Dozens of crags, of at least two different varieties,
* The oddest coming in of the tide I've ever seen, as water came in sideways to one point,
* A gorgeous midday at the beaches, first on the gut side and then on the harbor side, and finally,
* A coyote, who we apparently disturbed while taking a bath.
(Not right up close, but close enough to see well, and wonder at first what we were seeing.)
Overall, the Cape Cod National Seashore is well worth visiting.
