The hour-long daily dune tours from Art’s Dune Tours in Provincetown have been a favorite fixture on the Cape since they began in 1946. Each vehicle fits six to eight passengers. Ride in air-conditioned comfort as you roll through some of the prime, scenic spots you might not be able to get to otherwise. You’ll have great photo opportunities on...

Eight self-guided trails meander through Ashumet Holly Sanctuary, a 45-acre sanctuary in East Falmouth. (Don’t go without a map — you’ll miss the informative interpretations of what you’re seeing). Catch sight of some of over 130 species of birds known to live here or pass through, including 35 nesting pairs of barn swallows. More than 65 varieties of holly provide...

For those who think the Cape is all about the sun, drop your notions and dip into the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail in Wellfleet. A mixture of sandy trail and boardwalk, this 1.2-mile (round-trip) trail takes you into a completely different world. Cedars and maples grow thickly from this peat-rich swamp, blocking out most of the sun and creating...

Straight as a ruler, the Bass Hole Boardwalk off Centre Street from Route 6A in Yarmouthport, is the prime feature at this small, almost too mellow beach. When you’re not gaping at the scenery, which was once an 18th-century shipyard, check out the fiddler crabs, horseshoe crabs, small fish, great blue herons, and other critters that now ply these waters....

The Beebes, a wealthy family originally from Boston, lived in Falmouth from the late 1870s to the early 1930s. Generous town benefactors, they were among the first to purchase land, now known as Beebe Woods, in Falmouth. The 1878 Highfield Hall was the centerpiece of the property and has been magnificently restored with the vision of Friends of Highfield. (They hold...

Beech trees filter the sun at Beech Forest Trail in Provincetown. Chickadees are known to hop onto your hand if they think you might have some seed in your pockets (so bring some!). Located along the great north-south Atlantic Flyway, this is a favorite nesting site for migrating shore- and seabirds during their peregrinations. Sandy spots attract picnickers and a...

Owned by the nonprofit Salt Pond Areas Bird Sanctuaries, Inc., the 1775 historic Bourne Farm landmark includes a restored and furnished farmhouse, a bunkhouse (now a private residence), a barn, and 49 acres of orchards, fields, and wooded trails. It’s a perfectly tranquil spot overlooking Crocker Pond in Bourne, complete with a picnic area under a grape arbor. It’s about...

After the Cape Cod Canal destroyed the natural herring run into Great Herring Pond, local engineers created an elaborate artificial watercourse — theBournedale Herring Run — to allow mature herring to migrate back to their birthplace. Each twice-daily tide brings thousands of the bony fish slithering upstream, navigating the pools created by wooden planks. In total, hundreds of thousands of herring...

Visitors to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster get their feet wet, literally, learning about the plants and critters that live on the Cape. Bring a pail and wear water shoes on the popular Mudflat Mania exploration (early July through Aug). Two floors of exhibits, including aquariums and tanks filled with creatures, and interactive activities, keep kids entertained...

In 1961, newly elected President John F. Kennedy, Senator Leverett Saltonstall, and Representative Hastings Keith championed a bill to turn more than 43,000 acres into the Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS), protected forever from further development. (About 600 private homes remain within the park.) Today, more than 5 million people visit the CCNS annually, situated between Eastham and Provincetown. The excellent...

Most folks don’t come to Fort Hill in Eastham looking for a fort — they seek birds, sweeping views of the ocean,  some long steps, a boardwalk through a marsh, and a brooding forest of Red Maples that burst into flames in the autumn. Not that there ever was a fort here: The hill, one of the highest points around, was...

There’s a reason you won’t encounter many people on the stunning Great Island Trail in Wellfleet: It’s 8 miles (round-trip; at least a 4-hour hike), most of it in soft sand. Sand still wet at low tide takes some of the sting out of the walk –plus, high tide covers Jeremy Point, the final tip of the hike, and the...

“Tis a wonderful thing to sweeten a world which is in a jam and needs preserving,” sums up the philosophy of renowned children’s author and naturalist Thornton W. Burgess (a Sandwich native). Young Thornton wandered these woods adjacent to Ida Putnam’s vintage jam kitchen, which still cranks out an array of fresh jams almost daily in the old, aromatic cookery....

Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown is rockier than Race Point, but that only adds to its beauty. Just make sure you have beach and/or shoes of some kind and you’ll be fine. Plus, the notoriety about its rocks keeps those who require unbroken sand away, leaving more space for you to roll out your beach blanket and, BINGO! you’ve found...

Highland Golf Links in Truro, a challenging 9-hole course (par 35), is the closest thing you’ll find to traditional Scottish links on the East Coast. From the first hole, where deep, natural roughs packed with Scotch broom and heath separate you from the beach canyon at hole #2; to the famous #6 hole, on a cliff 1,130 feet above the...

Little Capistrano Bikes, a full-service and family-owned bike shop in Eastham, is smack-dab in Cape Cod Rail Trail country. They rent, repair, and sell bikes for all kinds of ages and riding abilities — including hybrid, mountain, cruiser, tandems, joggers, recumbents, kids’ bikes, trailers…you name it. Their Wellfleet location (1446 Route 6 South) is open only in season. Winding through...

For more than 200 years, the 135-acre Lowell Holly Reservation in Mashpee has been untouched by axe or fire, common tools used for clearing land in these parts for agricultural use by settlers and American Indians, respectively. This quiet sanctuary has 4 miles of lovely trails and former carriage paths, through American beeches, white pines, rhododendrons, glorious stretches of wildflowers and...

North and South Monomoy islands were once part of the barrier beach off Chatham’s eastern shore. A storm in 1958 separated a stretch of land, and another in 1978 split that piece into North and South. A powerful nor’easter in February 2013 accentuated the split. Limited accessibility available only by boat. It was designated a 7,600-acre wildlife refuge in 1944, granting...

It would take several days to exhaust yourself of everything that Nickerson State Park in Brewster has to offer. The thick forest, seamed with walking and biking trails and sprinkled with glacial “kettle” ponds, awaits exploration. The 25-mile Cape Cod Rail Trail Bike Path cuts through the Brewster park. Miles of loop-de-loop bike trails meander throughout the park as well,...

The Pilgrim Heights area in Truro is where the Pilgrims quite literally got their first taste of the New World. Follow the short, easy Pilgrim Spring Trail through a tangle of azaleas, bayberries, oaks, and blueberries to the spring where the Pilgrims reportedly first slaked their thirst after their long voyage. Small’s Swamp Trail (about the same distance) was named...