From Provincetown to Race Point Light

Race Point Lighthouse

The Race Point Light Station on Outer Cape Cod is located on a sand dune peninsula between Hatches Harbor and the Atlantic seaside where Massachusetts Bay continues southward as Cape Cod Bay. The site includes the preserved Race Point Lighthouse, the Keeper's house and a Whistle house. 

Lighthouse and Keeper's house

You may access the site via sand-dune tour with a four-wheel drive vehicle on permit basis. Alternatively, if you prefer an un-motorized bicycling or hiking day trip, you can make one happen by heading out of Provincetown on Conwell Street to get to the Province Lands Bicycle Trail loop as described in my recent Herring Cove/Hatches Harbor post. Then, at the Beech Forest parking area, turn right on to the bicycle loop and follow the paved two-lane trail to the Province Lands Visitor Center and beyond to Race Point Beach, from where you want to walk westward along the sandy beach. 

Race Point Beach

The two miles between the Old Harbor Life-Saving Station Museum at Race Point Beach and Race Point Light offer the most spectacular scenery as you follow the shoreline bending from Cape Cod's northern tip to the most western point with views across Cape Cod Bay.

Seabirds at the Race Point shoreline

Intertidal and subtidal sand bars attract seabirds and seals. Stellwagen Bank to the north creates a hospitable environment for a diverse marine wildlife.

Seals hanging out in shallow water

The submarine topography of banks and basins provide for productive fishing grounds. But, the shifting underwater landscape in combination with severe weather events resulted in many maritime disasters. A panel at the Province Lands Visitor Center points out occurrences of fatal voyages underlined by nearby shipwrecks:

Along Cape Cod and through Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, an ocean highway guides ships transporting people and goods to and from Boston and the Massachusetts ports. Unfortanately, over the past 400 years, numerous vessels have been lost to storms, collisions, and shifting shoals. Today, these shipwrecks serve as a window to the past.

Lighthouses played and still play an important role in guiding ships and saving lives. The Race Point Light Historic Site is an excellent location to reflect about coastal dynamics, hazards and safety. 

Water and seaweed flowing in with rising tide along a shoreline trough

From Provincetown to Herring Cove and Hatches Harbor

Kayakers taking advantage of the tidal inflow to explore Hatches Harbor salt marsh areas

Herring Cove Beach and Hatches Harbor of Cape Cod's Cape Tip area can be accessed from downtown Provincetown by choosing between different routes. My favorite one includes the bicycle trails through a mixed forest and over sand dunes. The total one-way-distance is a little over five miles. It includes about one mile from downtown to the Beech Forest trailhead next to Race Point Road. Then, 2.1 miles on the forest-pond-dune section of the Province Lands Bicycle Trail loop, another one mile on a paved trail traversing the coastal sand dune landscape and finally a beach walk north to Hatches Harbor with the Race Point lighthouse in view.

A view across Hatches Harbor to the Race Point Light Historic Site

Start this hike or bicycle trip by leaving Provincetown northbound on Conwell Street. Pass Highway 6 at the street light. For a short distance, continue north on Race Point Road until you see the trail sign and the beginning of a two-lane bicycle path on the left. Follow this path to the Province Lands Bicycle Loop in the Beech Forest area. Turn left and continue westward on the 2.1 mile-long loop section. For almost two mies you will travel through dense forests passing various fresh-water ponds. Leaving the forested area, you

will “climb” a hill—a sand dune with views of Cape Cod Bay and the Race Point lighthouse. From the trail junction near Province Land Road it is another mile on a pave two-lane path to Herring Cove Beach.

 

Bicyclist on Herring Cove Trail

 

Herring Cove sand dunes

Once you arrive at the beach, you want to leave your bike behind (if you came with one) and stroll north along the shoreline. 

Herring Cove Beach

The area you are entering now is changing its appearance within minutes due to the tidal flow of water. The most exciting place to watch the impressive ups-and-downs of salt water is the Hatches Harbor Habitat. This salt marsh estuary has an interesting recent history [1]:

The Hatches Harbor salt marsh is a remnant of a larger salt marsh complex that existed at the time of the first European settlement. This salt marsh was primarily a Spartina patens (salt hay grass) and S. alternifolia (smooth cord grass) community. In 1930, the upper 200 acres were enclosed behind a dike in an effort to contril salt water mosquitoes. The elimination of tidal flow dewatered part of the upper marsh, changing the mosaic of salt marsh and wetland communities. Subsequently, a small airport was constructed on the landward end of the marsh, an airport which today is a vital part of Provincetown's economy.

The airport can clearly be identified in the Hatches Harbor map [2]. The map also shows different zones with their predominant plant species.Thanks to tidal restoration efforts shellfish have re-colonized disturbed salt march zones, estuarine fish are again foraging in tidal creeks and important predators to mosquito larvae have returned [3].

Herring Cove Beach merging with Hatches Harbor salt marsh

References and more to explore

[] Norm Farris: Hatches Harbor Habitat. Link: https://www.nps.gov/gis/gisday/gallery/caco/hatches.html.

[2] Hatches Harbor Habitat, March 1998. Link: https://www.nps.gov/gis/gisday/gallery/caco/hatches.gif. 

[3] National Park Service, Cape Cod: Hatches Harbor Tidal Restoration Project. Link: https://www.nps.gov/caco/learn/nature/hatches-harbor-tidal-restoration-project.htm.

Cape Tip: Province Lands Bicycle Trail Loop

Sand dune landscape of Province Lands with green islands of shrubs or trees

The northern-end tip of Cape Cod was mostly covered by a mixed forest of beech, maple and oak trees before the first European colonists started clearing parts of it for planting and grazing. Today's bicycle trails north of Provincetown provide easy access for bicyclists and day-hikers to explore the remaining forest, access fresh-water ponds and enjoy the magnificient sand-dune landscape with cross-dune views of the Atlantic Ocean.  

Province Lands loop trail map

According to an informational board at the Province Lands Visitor Center, the tip of Cape Cod formed about 4000 years ago. The rest of the cape had already been shaped by glaciers. With global temperature increase, the sea level was rising. Currents carried sand from other sites, deposited it northwest of the precursor tip and formed the sandy Province Lands, which became stabilized and were kept in place by soil formation and pioneer vegetation growing into mature forests. The “Islands in the Sand” quote further below describes this process in more detail.

In this post, I am following the paved loop counter-clockwise, starting at the beech forest parking area on the left side of Race Point Road north of Highway 6 to Herring Cove Beach. Alongside the trail, you will find various interpretive panels featuring interesting subjects of local interest and beyond.

The first 1.8 miles next to Race Point Road wind through mostly open pine forest and over sandy hill sides toward the Province Lands Visitor Center. On a hill top with amazing views, a panel explains, how this land—used over thousands of years by the Pamet branch of the Wampanoag people for hunting, fishing and harvesting wild fruit—became Province Lands:

Just 20 years after the creation of the Boston Common, Plymouth Colony set aside the tip of Cape Cod in 1654 as our nation's second-oldest common land. Eventually called the Province Lands, the area provided resources, like timber and fish, critical to the colony's survival. 

 

Continuing downhill, you will soon arrive at the amphit theater and visitor center within the sand-dune landscape. The sand surface pattern of higher and lower elevations continues beyond the shoreline, where sandbars are a common features. A Cape Cod National Seashore panel at the visitor center points out:

When a ship got too close to land and struck a sandbar, there was no escaping the elements. Fierce winds and powerful waves could break up a wooden ship in minutes.

View from the visitor center deck

Westward from the visitor center, the trail soon crosses Race Point Road, where you will find yourself at be a trail junction. Unless your plan is to side-travel to Race Point Beach or to the Race Point Light Historical Site, turn left. It takes about half a mile to get to the underpass leading south of Province Lands Road. Then the trail roughly parallels this road in south-southwest direction to another junction, from where the right-turn trail takes you to Herring Cove Beach. The loop trail continues on the left in eastward direction.

“Islands in the Sand”

In my opinion, this is the highlight section of the loop. The trail leads to the top of a sand hill, where a panel introduces “Life in the Dunes” and “Islands in the Sand”:

As you look around the dunes you will see “islands” of vegetation. These plants are the result of a long process of soil-building, which starts when a combination of minerals, green algae, bacteria, and fungi form form a crust on the sand, drawing nutrients from the air and water. Lichens, which consist of algae and fungi, also coat the dunes. When these organisms die and decay, they contribute organic matter to the sand beneath them, and prevent the evaporation of water, thus forming soil. As soil builds up, grasses, shrubs, and even small trees, such as bear oak and black cherry can take root. As this process of succession—the change in vegetation species structure—continues, more areas of the dunes become forested.

Trail entering dense forest

The loop trail continues downhill and soon enters the forested lands. This beautiful, shady section of the loop trail leads back to our starting point through dense forest. Sand dune views are gone. Occasionally, you will find a narrow spot from where a fresh-water pond can be approached to scan water lily bloom or search for rare golden club plants.

Fresh-water pond seen through opening forest greens