Cape Cod, you might argue, is a state of mind. Whether your first experience is in a cottage by the sea, a resort filled with amenities, or a warm and inviting bed and breakfast inn, you will always treasure the simple pleasure of being so close to sand dunes and salty air. Spend enough time on this mesmerizing peninsula, and it becomes a part of you, willing you to come back over the bridge time and again.

The cover story in this month’s edition of Cape Cod Life magazine features Days Cottages, the iconic seaside cottages nestled cheek by jowl on historic route 6A in Truro, MA. Built in the 1930s, these 23 identical cottages have been featured on national TV commercials and numerous magazine covers, and have weathered even the most horrific of New England storms, including the Blizzard of ‘78. With Cape Cod Bay as their front yard, Days Cottages are a mere 18 feet apart and simply furnished: no televisions, no resort-type amenities. But with a fiercely loyal clientele their simple allure spans generations.

Each tiny two-bedroom cottage is named for a flower as ordained by the original owner’s wife, Amelia Days. For many returning guests, the simplicity of a no frills vacation by the sea is the idyllic choice for a family. Days are spent on the beach and nights are filled with the sounds of multiple generations playing games and sharing laughter.

I spent several summers on Cape Cod with my own family growing up. Though not at Days Cottages, our summer destination was Brewster and a cottage colony called Hopkins Cottages. Now long gone and replaced by condominiums, the memory of returning year after year to the same seaside shack and the thrill of meeting up with friends from the previous summer still warms my heart.

We have guests that come to our Inn every year, sometimes two and three times, sampling each season’s special delights. We welcome them like family and enjoy catching up with them like old friends. Though we may not have the longevity of Days Cottages, we are grateful for our growing list of loyal fans of the High Pointe Inn and hope to welcome new friends this year.

The first ever list of 1000 Great Places in Massachusetts was released yesterday, July 12, 2010. Selected from over 12,000 nominations, the range of Great Places shines on every part of the state, but none so much as Cape Cod. Intended to celebrate what is truly special about Massachusetts, the list of 1000 Great Places gives visitors the opportunity to see the variety and richness the state has to offer. For those of us who live and work on Cape Cod, it was a point of much civic pride to realize that nearly 10% of the identified 1000 Great Places are right here on the lovely peninsular we call home.

So here in alphabetical order, are the places known and loved by many that make Cape Cod special, not only to the residents, but to those who come to visit us year round. You can view the whole list of Great Places in Massachusetts online, or visit the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism website.

Barnstable

• Cahoon Museum of American Art
• Hyannis Harbor
• JFK Museum
• Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary
• Melody Tent
• Sandy Neck Beach
• Sturgis Library
• The Hyannis National Guard Armory

Bourne

• Aptucxet Trading Post Museum
• Cape Cod Canal Bike Path
• Scusset Beach State Reservation
• The Herring Run Recreation Area at the Cape Cod Canal

Brewster

• Cape Cod Rail Trail
• Nickerson State Park
• Stony Brook Grist Mill
• The Brewster Flats
• The Crosby Mansion
• The Old Mill

Chatham

• Chatham Light
• Chatham Village
• Monomoy Island
• The Chatham Fish Pier

Dennis

• Bass River
• Cape Cod Museum of Art
• Cold Storage Beach
• Mayflower Beach
• Scargo Tower
• Sesuit Harbor

Eastham

• Cape Cod National Seashore
• Coast Guard Beach
• First Encounter Beach
• Fort Hill

Falmouth

• Ashumet Holly Wildlife Sanctuary
• Bourne Farm
• Falmouth Museums on the Green
• Falmouth Shining Sea Bikeway
• Highfield Hall
• Nobska Point Lighthouse
• Spohr Garden on Fells Road
• The Knob, Woods Hole
• Woods Hole Village

Mashpee

• Cape Cod Children’s Museum
• Old Indian Church
• South Cape Beach
• Waquoit Bay

Orleans

• Academy of Performing Arts Playhouse
• French Cable Station Museum
• Nauset Beach
• Rock Harbor
• Plymouth
• Brewster Gardens to Jenny Pond
• Ellisville Harbor State Park
• Historic Plymouth Harbor
• Jenney Grist Mill
• Myles Standish State Forest
• Pilgrim Hall Museum
• Plimoth Plantation
• Plymouth Rock
• The Cordage Historical Society in Plymouth

Provincetown

• Cape Cod National Sea Shore
• Commercial Street
• Fine Arts Work Center
• Hatches Harbor
• Herring Cove Beach
• Pilgrim Monument
• Art Association and Museum
• Race Point Lighthouse
• The Breakwater’s Rock Passage

Sandwich

• Benjamin Nye Homestead
• Heritage Museums & Gardens
• Historic Village and Historic District
• Sandwich Glass Museum
• Sandwich Grist Mill
• The Board Walk
• Thornton W. Burgess Society

Truro

• Ballston Beach
• Highland Light
• Highland Links Golf Course
• Artist shacks in the dunes
• Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill

Wareham

• A. D. Makepeace Store
• Church Street Historic District
• Cranberry Bog Farms Trail
• Onset Beach/Village
• Plymouth County Cranberry Country Routes 58 and 28.
• The Porter Thermometer Museum

Wellfleet

• Jeremy’s Point
• Marconi Station Site
• Mass Audubon Society Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary
• Newcomb’s Hollow Beach
• The Beachcomber
• Town Center and Harbor
• Uncle Tim’s Bridge
• Wellfleet Drive-in

Yarmouth

• Boardwalk onto the Marsh at Gray’s Beach
• Cultural Center of Cape Cod
• Edward Gorey’s House
• Judah Baker Windmill on Bass River

Cape Cod's National Seashore

Writing about Cape Cod in the 1800s, Henry David Thoreau said, “A man may stand there and put all America behind him.” Thoreau walked the length of the “great outer beach” along the Atlantic ocean long before it became part of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

The National Seashore is one of Cape Cod’s greatest treasures. Created with the passing of a bill on August 7th, 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, its designation marked the first time the National Park Service (NPS) created a “National Seashore”, and served as the model for the creation of at least nine additional “Seashores” in the U.S. The bill that created it protects more than 44,000 acres of land along the outer reaches of Cape Cod, including 40 miles of shoreline that stretch from Monomoy Island to Provincetown.

More than 4 million people visit Cape Cod’s National Seashore annually, stopping at one of the two Visitor Centers within the park to acquaint themselves with what the area has to offer. During the height of the summer, rangers offer numerous no-cost activities geared to both young and old, including interpretive nature talks, lighthouse tours, and historical re-enactments.

Cape Cod's National Seashore

Within the park itself are 11 self-guided walking trails, from easy walks over gentle terrain to more difficult hikes through woodlands and soft sand. Listed here by the town in which they are located, the trails are a great way to experience Cape Cod the way Thoreau did.

Eastham

• Fort Hill Trail, Governor Prence Road , is a 1.5 mile, moderately difficult trail offering great views and connects with the Red Maple Swamp Trail.
• Red Maple Swamp Trail, off Fort Hill Trail, is a one-half mile trail of moderate difficulty with boardwalk sections that wind through the swamp.
• Buttonbush Trail, adjacent to Salt Pond Visitor Center, Route 6, is quarter-mile trail with a boardwalk bridge over Buttonbush Pond, and features a guide rope and Braille and large text.
• Nauset Marsh Trail, adjacent to Salt Pond Visitor Center, Route 6 is an easy one-mile trail along the shore of Salt Pond and Nauset Marsh over fields and through a recovering forest with great views.
• Doane Trail, Doane Road (on the way to Coast Guard Beach) is an easy half-mile paved trail loop through pine and oak forests to large glacial rock with marsh views.

Wellfleet

• Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, Marconi Station area is an award-winning 1.25 mile trail descending through a stunted oak and pine forest into a mature woodland where a boardwalk leads through the picturesque swamp. This is a moderately difficult trail with a return route in soft sand.
• Great Island Trail, Chequesset Neck Road is a 6- to 8-mile trail that runs along Great Island and Great Beach Hill, skirting the salt marshes and offering great views on the way to Jeremy Point. This is the Park’s most difficult trail due to its soft sand, log steps, and portions submerged at high tide.

Truro

• Pamet Cranberry Bog Trail, North Pamet Road, is a one-mile trail with a steep quarter-mile spur to an overlook. The trail is moderately strenuous with many log steps.
• Small’s Swamp Trail, Pilgrim Heights area off Route 6 is an easy 3/4 mile loop.
• Pilgrim Spring Trail, Pilgrim Heights area off Route 6 is an easy 3/4 mile loop through recovering pine and oak forest. A marker commemorates an area representative of where the Pilgrims first drank.

Provincetown

• Beach Forest Trail, Race Point Road. The trailhead begins at the parking lot 1/2 mile from traffic light on Route 6. This is a one-mile easy walk in sand, past a pond and sand dunes.

Cape Cod National Seashore beach

In addition to some great hikes, the Cape Cod National Seashore is known for its wonderful beaches. All have paved parking, showers, rest rooms, changing rooms, and lifeguards seasonally. Coast Guard Beach in Eastham and Herring Cove in Provincetown, are handicapped accessible and have wheelchairs capable of traveling over sand. In 2009, Dr. Beach, aka Stephen P. Leatherman, named Coast Guard Beach one of the Top Ten beaches in the U.S., and declared it one of the best sand beaches in the U.S. in 2010. Here, in no particular order, are the National Seashore beaches along with some hints about parking.

• Coast Guard Beach, Nauset Road off Route 6, Eastham. The parking lot fills quickly on nice summer days. However there is a shuttle from a satellite lot a half mile away.
• Nauset Light Beach, Nauset Road off Route 6, Eastham. The parking area always fills before 9:30 AM during July and August, except in bad weather.
• Marconi Beach, off Route 6, Wellfleet. This parking area rarely fills during late June and July, although in August it will fill occasionally in August. Marconi is arguably one of the most beautiful beaches in the entire region.
• Head of the Meadow Beach, Truro. This is a great beach for young children and the parking area rarely fills.
• Race Point Beach, Race Point Rd (off Route 6), Provincetown. The parking area rarely fills during June and July. This is a great beach for watching sunset and very popular with fisherman.
• Herring Cove Beaches, off Route 6, Provincetown. The parking area fills between 10AM and noon most days throughout the summer. This is another great beach to watch the sunset.

The Cape Cod National Seashore is a “must do” for visitors to Cape Cod in any season. Less than a half-hour’s drive from our Cape Cod bed and breakfast, the stunning natural beauty of the area, combined with the pounding surf against the shore, especially before and after one of our infamous nor’easters, is hypnotic. Grab your beach bag or your hiking boots and make a day of it!

View Great Sunsets On Cape Cod in a larger map

When I was working on cruise ships, in a pre-innkeeping lifestyle, sailors would tell me stories of seeing the “green flash”, a phosphorescent burst of greenish hue that supposedly occurs just as the final remnants of the sun disappear into the water. In all my days at sea, above and below the equator, I paused at day’s end to watch intently as the sun set. Try as I might, however, in my five years at sea, I never witnessed the “green flash”.

Part of me thought it was an old wives tale, or in my case, old sailors. But part of me, the romantic “I believe in Santa Claus and the good fairy” part, really, really wanted to see it. Years later, after my swashbuckling seafarer days, I was on a cruise with my husband, Rich, that took us south to Guatemala. Leaving port at the end of the day, we were on deck just beneath the bridge waving goodbye to the locals who had gathered to see us off. As we steamed toward the horizon, for some strange reason, I recounted the tale of the “green flash” and my disappointment in never having seen it myself.

Caught up in the moment of wistful recollections, but with some circumspection, he indulged my romantic notion and stopped to watch the sun sink slowly in the sky. Perhaps it was the warm trade winds, or the gentle swell of the ocean beneath us, or even the effervescence of the bubbly in our glasses, but at the very moment the sun slipped softly below the horizon…there it was. Ever so brief, but none the less brilliant, a flash of emerald green. And though we’ve never seen it since, every time we watch the setting
sun, no matter where we are in the world, we hold our breath and hope that it appears.

Very few places on the  east coast of the continental U.S. have a view of the sun setting over water, save for the west coast of Florida, some offshore islands, and parts of Cape Cod. We invite you to witness this phenomenon the next time you visit us at the High Pointe Inn. Even if you don’t see it, it sure is fun trying. Here are some of our favorite spots to catch the sunset on this magnificent peninsula we call home:

Gray’s Beach, Yarmouthport
A long boardwalk across the marsh leads to a viewing platform. Along the way, you might spot a crab or two in the tide pools.

Chapin Memorial Beach, Dennis
Right across the town line from Gray’s Beach. Bring a blanket or a beach chair for comfort.

Wychmere Harbor, Harwichport
Wychmere is considered by some to be one of the prettiest harbors on the Cape. Pull into the little observation area off Rt. 28, but remember that parking is limited to 15 minutes.

Skaket Beach, Orleans
Set right in the crook of the Cape’s elbow, Skaket offers you that rare East Coast treat of seeing the sun set on water.

Great Island, Wellfleet
This secluded section of the National Seashore overlooks Cape Cod Bay to its west and Wellfleet Harbor to the east.

Cape Cod Light, Truro
The view from this vantage point includes dunes, ocean, bay, Pilgrim Monument, and Cape Cod Light to frame your sunset.

Race Point, Provincetown
Race Point sits on the very tip of the Cape, surrounding by water on three sides.

From Sea or Sky
Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard also have beautiful sunsets, but our favorite treat is to catch the sunset from the back of the ferry on our return trip from one of the islands. Even better is to catch it in-flight aboard a Cape bound plane.