Postcards from Around the World

Leaf Peeping in New England (7)

[Leaf peeping is an informal term in the United States and Canada for the activity in which people travel to view and photograph the fall foliage in areas where leaves change colours in autumn, particularly in northern New England]

When I was teaching it meant holidays could only be taken during the school holidays when it was more expensive and busy. And I couldn’t tag on to the OH’s conferences either. Which is why during one October half term we decided to do a fly drive holiday to the eastern side of the USA and do a spot of leaf peeping.

We only had a couple of nights on Cape Cod as I had decided I would rather be closer to the airport on the Friday night for our Saturday flight back to the UK. There were so many building and roadworks around the airport I wasn’t taking any chances.

Cape Cod has always fascinated me. I don’t know whether it is the name or the shape of it looking like a scorpion tail, or the quaint villages, seafood shacks, lighthouses, ponds and miles of soft golden sandy ocean beaches and bays. Offshore islands like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard just sound so romantic. And of course all those English place names!

Coast Guard Beach in Eastham. A classic Cape Cod beach with plenty of sand, dunes and gorgeous views of the sea.

So on the first day we simply headed all the way up the State Highway (6) to Provincetown. Stopping off at various landmarks and beaches along the Cape Cod National Seashore. Seeing a lot of the natural beauty of the region disappearing led President Kennedy to sign a bill in August of 1961 protecting forty-three thousand acres of space from Chatham to Provincetown and preserving it as a National Park.

First stop was the boardwalk at Sandwich which leads out to Cape Cod Bay.

Then it was in the car to explore. Coast Guard beach was our first stop and is actually the site of the first landing of the Mayflower! They didn’t hang out here long before realising they were somewhat north of Virginia, so seeking a safe settlement site near the Hudson River they headed back out to sea to set a course southeast. Once the ship became enmeshed in the shoals off the coast of the cape, though, they turned back north and found safe harbour at what is now known as Provincetown where they remained for a month before setting sail for the mainland where they established the Plymouth colony.

On the second day we spent it mostly along the Massachusetts Route (28) again stopping off at various points before heading back up to Boston in the late afternoon.

Waquoit Bay is a public national estuary, which is typically used as a research reserve. It is a part of Nantucket Sound and is located on the southern shore of Cape Cod , in the towns of Falmouth and Mashpee.
South Cape Beach State Park, Great Oak Rd., Mashpee. This 460-acre park has a beautiful barrier beach sheltering Waquoit Bay to go along with a pair of ponds, Sage Lot and Flat Pond along with many walking trails.  The premier trail is the Dead Neck Trail which parallels the barrier beach and runs roughly a mile out to the shores of Waquoit Bay.

The weather wasn’t great on our first day though it improved towards the late afternoon and I think perhaps September would be a better month to visit this region when it’s not so busy with summer holidaymakers, but whilst the weather is still warm.

My final post of Cape Cod will be a look at Provincetown itself.

Published by

Unknown's avatar

Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

16 thoughts on “Postcards from Around the World”

  1. oooh Robert and I also stayed on this stretch – but we did it at the start as I thought it might be nice to stay somewhere beautiful near airport for the first couple of days.

      1. ooh now that’s a very good question. I was still working in Winchester then and so between 2000 and 2003. I’ll have to track down the photos!

  2. I’ve always thought this coastline looks fabulous, and of course I’ve only ever seen it in images like these. The lighthouses are a particular draw, I think.

  3. There’s definitely something about the names Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard that conjure another world, Jude. I’d love to have made this trip.

  4. It certainly looks a lot like some parts of England. I enjoyed scrolling through the extra photos and really liked the wooden lighthouses.

    Best wishes, Pete. x

  8. You got me wondering about the name “Cape Cod.” Online I found that “Cape Cod was named by English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602. The name, as you might suspect, comes from the abundance of codfish in the area.”

    One minor thing: Route 6 is a US highway rather than a state highway (though you might have been using “state” in the sense “nation state”). On July 16th we drove several hours on US 6 (which Interstate 70 coincides with) from eastern Utah into western Colorado.

    1. Yes, I saw that about the abundance of cod, probably not now! And thanks for clearing up the road info. I am not familiar in the way you guys name your roads! Interstates, freeways, routes… very confusing!

  9. Great photos of the coast and dunes here 🙂 We stayed a couple of nights in Provincetown many years ago so I’ll be very interested to read your account of your visit.

Comments are closed.