Cape Cod Beach Weekend - Aug. 1 - 3, 2008

Stay with us at a former U.S. Coast Guard station in Eastham, right on the Outer Beach. Adirondack Chairs line the porch. Participate in environmental program after biking and beaching.  We bring our bikes and walking shoes for this trip.

Photo taken by Rachel Neuwirth

The Great Beach, so named by Henry David Thoreau, starts here. This sandy strand offers opportunities to study coastal beach processes, including longshore transport of sand and coastal erosion.

Nauset Marsh is located behind the former Coast Guard Station. It is accessible by a pathway that leads to the bicycle trail bridge. Here, one can see shorebirds working the tidal flats in the warmer months and observe salt marsh grass systems close up.

Nauset Spit offers the opportunity to walk directly onto a barrier beach system and observe shorebirds and, during the winter months, seals. The inlet into Nauset Marsh is at the southern end of Nauset Spit. World-renowned nature writer, Henry Beston, wrote The Outermost House from his beach cottage located here.

Nesting plovers and terns frequent this area in the early spring to early summer. Plovers are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Seals can often be sighted at the end of Nauset Spit during the winter months. Generally these are harbor seals. At low tide, they can sometimes be seen "hauling out" onto the marsh.

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