• Atlantic Ocean beach at Cape Cod National Seashore

    Cape Cod

    National Seashore Massachusetts

"A man may stand there and put all America behind him." Henry David Thoreau

The great Outer Beach described by Thoreau in the 1800s is protected within the national seashore. Forty miles of pristine sandy beach, marshes, ponds, and uplands support diverse species. Lighthouses, cultural landscapes, and wild cranberry bogs offer a glimpse of Cape Cod's past and continuing ways of life. Swimming beaches and walking and biking trails beckon today's visitors.

Did You Know?

pirate treasure

Cape Cod's own pirate shipwreck, the Whydah, went down in a storm off the coast in April 1717. Before being taken by pirate Sam Bellamy as his flagship, the Whydah was a slave ship, named for the port city of Ouidah in today's country of Benin on the African coast.