What was supposed to be a weekend trip through all of Cape Cod got cut short by a deluge of rain on the second day. So we made the best of it with a 24 hour tour of the best of Cape Cods upper arm. We began our day at the Nauset Light House and beach. One of the most famous light houses in the area, we stopped for a quick photo, not realizing there was an incredible beach located a the foot of the hill below the lighthouse.
A short hike down the sidewalk from the Nauset Lighthouse is the Three Sisters Light houses. If you're going to visit one it makes sense to see these as well. Although the Nauset lighthouse is a restored light house built from the tower of the Chatham light, the original three sisters lighthouses were brick and when they fell into the sea they were replaced by the much more affordable wood lights you see here.
While tours of the Nauset lighthouse are available, open house style, it was not open during our visit so we stayed strictly outside. For tour information please visit the Nauset light preservation society:
Heading north up the coast you'll find one of the few hiking trails located in cape cod. The white cedar swamp trail is famous for its very long board walk. Keep on the trail though as the area is absolutely infested with ticks, and being a swamp the mosquito population is very healthy as well. The nearby look out platform by the beach provides views of the old Marconi wireless station and the national park center and museum is on the road leading to this area as well. Don't miss that, it has fantastic native artifacts and a gift shop.
From here we headed straight north to the final town in Cape Cod, Provincetown. While the area is well known for people watching, we stopped for a quick lunch at Bayside Betsys. The beautiful water view was perfect for a quick bite before we headed to Race Point beach. This beach stretches forever and a light house lies at the western end. The plan was to seek this out for more photos but nature had a different idea
We stumbled on a rare sight for this area, an entire herd of seals! Stretched over a wide area, there must have been north of 80 of them. We stayed to film and take photos for so long that I killed my GoPro battery and decided to turn around. We had only made it about half way up the beach to see the lighthouse at this point so I can confidently say this is a LONG walk in the the blazing sun, so come prepared if you attempt it.
Unfortunately we continued our streak of bad luck on this trip after the amazing seal encounter. We visited the pilgrim monument and tower in the center of Provincetown. This has an AMAZING view and also hosts private functions and events. Which is exactly what was happening on the day we visited. So, sadly this is going to be another tower I have to revisit in the future (here's looking at you, Heublin tower)
We finished our day with a visit to the Highland Lighthouse, and finally scored a spot where we could take a tour! This impressive lighthouse has been moved inland to avoid the eternal land erosion of the Cape Cod shore and is an impressive interior worth seeing. The knowledgeable docent gives a great tour with photography from every era of this light. The best part is when you get all the way up into the light itself. The view is amazing, the light still flashes and the climb is claustrophobic enough to create some fun memories with the strangers on your tour. After this we settled in with some local ice cream before our 4 hour drive home through the massive rain storm. Hopefully we'll be able to go back and explore the rest of cape cod soon!
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