Cape Cod Rail Trails, Biking the Cape Cod Dunes

Cape Cod is still unspoiled and naturally beautiful
and touring by bicycle is a great way to see the
villages that cherish their seafaring heritage.
Biking Cape Cod's Rail Trails, The bike
traveler will also find many modern conveniences,
there are bike rental shops, lighthouses, windmills,
nature preserves, golf courses, art and history
museums, a winery, art colonies, an airport with
sightseeing flights, and RV campgrounds all along
the bike trails that parallel the beaches.
There is no better way to experience the natural
beauty of Cape Cod than on a bicycle.
The Outer Cape (lower)you can visit the location of
Henry Beston’s, The Outermost House, now just a
beach after a storm took the house, and then
peddle your way between Coast Guard beach,
Highland Light and the Province lands beaches.

The “Cape Cod Rail Trail”, a former railroad
bed now turned bicycle path, and the Nauset Dune
Trail, a system of paved bike trails that winds
through Beach forest and high dunes, together
contain over fifty miles of off-road bicycle and
walking trails.
The Cape Cod Rail Trail is a largely off-road trail
that travels for over 25 miles through Brewster's
Nickerson State Park and then through Orleans’s
Rock Harbor and on to Eastham and The Cape
Cod National Sea Shore’s Salt Pond Visitors
Center. At the center, you can continue to the
windward Nauset Shore or to the north and reach
the end at Lecount Hollow in the town of Wellfleet.
At several places along the way, there is ample
parking, if one chooses not to travel the entire 25
miles by bicycle.

From the end of the Rail Trail at Lecount Hollow, a
short drive towards Provincetown will bring you to
the Nauset Dunes trail system, with its paved
paths through the dunes and along the beach at
the very tip of Cape Cod.

Try some seafood on your journey at Rock Harbor,
the small port on The Cape Cod Bay side or inner
crook of the elbow of Cape Cod. Captain Cass’s
Rock Harbor Seafood Restaurant and Young’s
Fish Market, dine in or get local steamer clams
and fresh cooked Lobster to go.
Rock Harbor’s sport fishing fleet comes in twice a
day with catches of Striped Bass, Bluefish,
Mackerel, Tuna, Sharks, Flounder, Fluke and Cod.

Writer and naturalist, Henry David Thoreau, passed
through the Cape in 1849, writing detailed
descriptions of treeless solitude. To this day, a barren
starkness prevails on the high Nauset dunes, just as
Thoreau described it in his journal, Cape Cod. (Click
Here for Text, Cape Cod) The relentless sea has
reclaimed several hundred feet of the Nauset-side
cliffs and dunes since Thoreau’s time, but one can still
walk as Thoreau did, on over twenty-five miles of
unobstructed beach, from Eastham to far distant
Provincetown’s Race Point.
For those that want a return to the leisurely childhood
beach days of warm water and small waves, two quiet
beaches are a little more than a mile from the Rail
Trail. Follow Skaket Beach Road in Orleans to the
end and find a quarter-mile granular sand beach
bordered by rose dunes and American Beach Grass
with a carpet of Eelgrass at the tide line. To the right,
as you face the ocean, you can find privacy in the
grass and dune area near the stream outlet.
The water is shallow for a half mile, with the flats totally
uncovering at low tide. These sand flats produce the
delicious white steamer clams found at Young’s Fish
Market in Rock Harbor.
Further North along the Rail Trail you will come to
Eastham and find another secluded beach, this one
named for the less than cordial first meeting in 1620,
between the Pilgrims of Miles Standish and the
resident native population: First Encounter Beach.

Coast Guard Beach

Highland Light

From the paved trail through the dunes of
Provincetown you can climb a high dune
and get a view of spouting whales

Cape Cod Rail Trails Biking The Cape Cod Dunes

beach with the outlet of Herring Brook at the end, Plovers, Herons, Terns, Red
Tailed Hawk and many other shore and marsh birds soar and flit On a mile or so of
low dune Marsh Grass and over the Heather and Beach Grass. Tidal pools are
alive with the drama of Hermit Crabs, snails, Fiddler Crabs, and tiny fish scurrying
through their daily routine. Finding a private place to read, write, or just plain
snooze should be no problem here even on a summer weekend.

Herring Cove Beach

Ice cream stop Cape Cod
Bike Trail

Nauset Beach, Orleans

The network of trails includes Herring Cove Beach on the
while lazily surf fishing for the lunker Striped Bass that
feed along the shore. From the parking lot adjacent to
the beach, the bike and walking trail extends into the
Provinceland Dunes, connecting with the Beach Forest
Trail and The Race Point Trail. Both of these trailheads
have large public parking lots.
This unspoiled land changes with the winds that restlessly
rearrange the hummocks and tufts as if preparing each
day for special guests. The elemental forces of nature in
this raw land are never far from view.
No better way to see all than on a bicycle.

Johnathan Young
Windmill, Orleans

Cape Cod Rail
Trail, Paved
Bike Trails
Through
The
Cape Cod
Dunes

Rail Trails, Biking on
Cape Cod

Bike Trails On Outer Cape Cod

Cape Cod Bicycle Trails Bike on Paved Trails to the
Beaches of Cape Cod

Biking Cape Cod Dunes

Bike to Cape Cod Beaches

Bike Through the
Cape Cod Dunes

Getting to Cape Cod: Boston is the nearest large city to Cape Cod.
Air service reaches Boston from other major hubs and cities. Rental cars are available at the airport.
From Boston take Route 93 to Route 3 and after 60 miles, cross the Cape Cod Canal. Continue on
Route 6 for all locations on Cape Cod or go to Route 6A for the slower scenic route through the villages.
Routes 6 and 6A join in Orleans and go to the tip of Cape Cod.
Several small commuter airlines serve Hyannis Airport and Provincetown Airport on Cape Cod from
Boston, Providence, and New Bedford. Cape Air, US Airways Express, and Linear Air (Hanscom Field
Bedford Ma)
Bus service is available from Boston and from Logan Airport. Plymouth and Brockton, Logan Direct
serves Hyannis
Bonanza Bus Lines serves Bourne, Falmouth, and the Wood's Hole ferry from Logan Airport
Passenger Boats leave daily from Boston to the tip of Cape Cod (May -September) at Provincetown.
Bicycles can go aboard.
A fast cat boat and a slower conventional passenger boat make trips from Boston. Bicycles permitted
A passenger boat makes a daily run from Plymouth, MA to Provincetown.

Fifteen large towns and many small villages make up Cape Cod.

Upper Cape: Along the Cape Cod Canal, the towns of Bourne and Sandwich define the northern limit of
the upper Cape
Mid Cape includes Barnstable, Yarmouth and Dennis. The mid Cap is where you will find Hyannis Airport
Lower Cape includes Brewster, Harwich , and Chatham.
Outer Cape starts in Orleans and includes Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown.

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Cape Cod Rail Trails
Biking The Cape Cod
Dunes top Highland
Light

Cape Cod Rail Trails
Biking leads to
Eastham and a road
near the Eastham
Windmill

The Cape Cod Rail Trails offer Biking Through The
Cape Cod Dunes.
The Cape Cod Rail Trail, the Nauset Dune Trail,
and the Provincelands Dunes Trail together contain
over fifty miles of off-road bicycle and walking
trails.