Up and down the hills through moist, near-ocean woodland: Small's Swamp Trail, Cape Cod

View from Small's Swamp Trail: swamp, sand dune range and Atlantic Ocean

Small's Swamp Nature Trail or Small's Swamp Loop Trail—I will use the short form Small's Swamp Trail in the following—is located on “Cape Cod's forearm” (remember, Cape Tip to the northwest is nicknamed “Province Lands Fist”). Geo-anatomical nicknaming aside: this trail features some amazing vista points to scan the Atlantic Ocean, nearby swamps and sand dunes. It leads around the former farm land of Thomas Small, after whom the trail is named. 

Up the hill via log steps to a vista point

Small's Swamp Trail—a three-fourths mile loop trail—takes you up and down rolling sandhills with a mixed forest of pines, scrub oak and shrubs. Halfway around the loop, you will find a short connector path to the paved Head of the Meadow Bicycle Trail. A neighbor loop trail, Pilgrim Spring Trail shares its trailhead with Small's Swamp Trail and also connects with the bicycle trail.

Alongside Small's Swamp Trail you will find selected plants that are identified by a marker on a post providing the common and scientific name plus a drawing and the plant family to which the species belongs. The list of marked plants include black oak, bear oak, sweet pepperbush, highbush blueberry, beach plum, black cherry, bear berry, bayberry, wild sarsaparilla and poison ivy.

Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica), Waxmyrtle Family

Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis), Ginseng Family

 

Getting there

Small's Swamp Trail and its neighbor loop trail, Pilgrim Spring Trail, are in the Pilgrim Heights Area of the Cape Cod National Seashore. The trailhead for both trails is located next to the parking-lot loop at the end of Pilgrim Heights Road. Access this road by exiting Route 6 at Pilgrim Heights. See map.

The trailhead is next to the interpretive shelter. There you also can find some information on the history of the Mayflower Pilgrims, who, after nine weeks of crossing the North Atlantic, spotted the sand cliffs of Cape Cod. The Mayflower anchored in present-day Provincetown. After five weeks, the Pilgrims sailed across Cape Cod Bay to where now is Plymouth.

Grassy trail section

 

References and more to explore

Small's Swamp Trail. National Park Service, Cape Cod, National Seashore Massachusetts. URL: https://www.nps.gov/caco/planyourvisit/smallsswamp.htm.

Small's Swamp Trail. National Park Planner. URL: https://npplan.com/parks-by-state/massachusetts-national-parks/cape-cod-national-seashore-park-at-a-glance/cape-cod-national-seashore-hiking-trails/cape-cod-national-seashore-smalls-swamp-trail/.

Hike Cape Cod. Pilgrim Springs - Small's Swamp Trails, Truro MA. Blogspot post, August 13, 2011. URL: http://hikecapecod.blogspot.com/2011/08/pilgrim-springs-smalls-swamp-trails.html.