Crocker Neck Conservation Area
Santuit Rd., Cotuit• (508) 790-6272

The 52-acre Crocker Neck Conservation Area in Cotuit is a peninsula created by Shoestring Bay, Popponesset Bay, and Pinquickset Cove. It is wooded and has an interpretive trail with permanent numbered markers and an observation deck overlooking tidal pools. The area also has saltwater marshes. You can park in a lot off Santuit Road.

Long Pond Conservation Area
Santuit-Newtown Rd., Cotuit• (508) 790-6272

A community garden with two observation decks overlooking the 37-acre Long Pond are features of Long Pond Conservation Area. An interpretive network of trails totaling two miles passes through fields and woodlands. A parking entrance on Newtown Road is about two and a half miles from Mass. Rt. 28.

Burgess Park
Mass. Rt. 149, Marstons Mills• (508) 790-6345

Burgess Park is a 17-acre park with a 18 "hole" Frisbee golf course, walking trails, a playground, volleyball court, croquet area, horseshoe pits, and barbecue grills. The park overlooks Hamblin Pond, and it's an easy walk to the pond's beach.

Bridge Creek Watershed
Mass. Rt. 149, West Barnstable• (508) 790-6272

To reach Bridge Creek Watershed you can park at either the fire station on Mass. Rt.149 or at Church Street (which can be found off Parker Road off Mass. Rt. 6A). This large 246-acre conservation area has 2½ miles of well-cleared trails for you to explore. Maps are available at the trailhead.

Sandy Neck Recreation Area
Off Mass. Rt. 6A, West Barnstable• (508) 790-6272

The Sandy Neck Recreation Area has about 5 miles of sandy trails bordered by wildflowers and cranberries. It's a nice place to canoe and fish. You can plan your hike from a trail map at the beach guard station. Parking is available.

West Barnstable Conservation Area
Mass. Rt. 149, West Barnstable• (508) 790-6272

West Barnstable Conservation Area is an extensive 1,114-acre area with 15 miles of trails. A good number of the trails are geared toward mountain biking. You'll find limited parking at the intersection of Popple Bottom Road and Mass. Rt. 149, or off the service road.

Hathaway Pond Recreation Area
Old Phinney's Ln., Barnstable• (508) 790-6272

The Hathaway Pond Recreation Area in Barnstable has oak and pine forests, two ponds, an interpretive trail, and a picnic area within its 94 acres. The entrance is on Phinney's Lane near Mass. Rt. 132.

Horse Pond Conservation Area
Higgins Crowell Rd., West Yarmouth• (508) 398-2231

Located near the Mattacheese School, this 5,073-foot hilly trail is marked by pitch pines, white oaks, sassafras, and blueberry and huckleberry bushes. Though the trail is joined by side trails that lead off toward longer journeys, the main trail keeps Horse Pond within sight.

Meadowbrook Road Conservation Area
Meadowbrook Rd., West Yarmouth• (508) 398-2231

Meadowbrook Road Conservation Area is a pretty walking area with a 310-foot-long boardwalk over a freshwater marsh that leads to a scenic overlook of Swan Pond. Benches provide a good place for a reflective moment or to examine the beautiful salt marsh vegetation that grows so abundantly here.

Raymond J. Syrjala Conservation Area
Winslow Gray Rd., West Yarmouth• (508) 398-2231

The Raymond J. Syrjala Conservation Area is about a half-mile from Mass. Rt. 28. The 3,540-foot trail encircles a kettle-hole pond that serves as a great frog pond. The trail itself is spongy because it's made up of decaying leaves and pine needles. Many species of vegetation, such as red maple, pitch pine, and blueberries are marked.

Crab Creek Conservation Area
North Dennis Rd., Yarmouthport• (508) 398-2231

Blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) are abundant here, and their presence gave this conservation area its name. A 500-foot trail follows a creek that joins Follins Pond with Mill Creek; it is a prime fishing spot and features a dock just for that purpose. Besides the creek and the crabs, there is also an old bog and plenty of red maple, cranberry, pitch pine, blueberry, and poison ivy.

Callery-Darling Conservation Area
Center St., Yarmouthport• (508) 398-2231

The Callery-Darling Conservation Area is a great place to spot woodland and water birds, such as the great blue heron, the largest heron in North America, which fishes in both fresh and salt water. There is a trail system here comprising some 2.4 miles wandering through lands where foxes, rabbits, and deer make their home.

Botanical Trails
Mass. Rt. 6A, Yarmouthport• (508) 398-2231

The Botanical Trails behind the Yarmouthport Post Office on Mass. Rt. 6A are owned by the town. The area has a little herb garden and a 150-year-old weeping beech tree. There is a gatehouse at the beginning of the trail where you can pick up a trail map and where a donation is requested (50 cents for adults, 25 cents for children). The main trail is approximately 1 mile long, and the pond trail around Millers Pond adds another half-mile to the trek.

Dennis Pond Conservation Area
Willow St., Yarmouthport• (508) 398-2231

As its name suggests, this conservation area is adjacent to Dennis Pond and features a 3,285-foot trail that leads through woodlands of red maple, white pine, and sweet pepperbush. Your walk will take you through many faces of Cape Cod woodlands, including an old bog, pine forests, and a small swamp. Moss is plentiful in some spots, fallen pine needles in others. There's a small parking area out on Willow Street where you begin your journey.

Bass Hole (Gray's Beach)
Centre St., Yarmouthport• (508) 398-2231

Bass Hole, also called Gray's Beach, at the end of Centre Street, is the place to stroll along the boardwalk, put your toes in the water and enjoy the beach, playground, and barbecue facilities. Many consider this the best place to watch a sunset on Cape Cod.

Simpkins Neck Romig-Jacquinet Conservation Area
New Boston Rd., Dennis• (508) 760-6123

Simpkins Neck and the Romig-Jacquinet Conservation Area are two connected parcels of land that are largely surrounded by marshlands. Once you find the entrance (off New Boston Road, two houses past Berrien Studios on your left) you can follow the trail to the edge of the marsh. You'll have to work your way through some underbrush, but once you do, you can actually walk out to the marsh. Bird watchers will be in heaven, as will wildlife lovers, since Simpkins Neck is also refuge to raccoons and deer.

Crowe's Pasture
South St., East Dennis• (508) 760-6123

Nature lovers will relish Crowe's Pasture, a bayfront site of more than 50 acres off South Street at the end of Quivet Cemetery. Follow the dirt road (about 2½ miles round trip) and revel in an oasis barrier beach, marsh hawks, and wild apple and cherry groves.

Fresh Pond Conservation Area
Mass. Rt. 134, South Dennis• (508) 760-6123

Fresh Pond Conservation Area, right on Mass. Rt. 134, is 90 unspoiled acres of blueberries and wild cranberries. You can occasionally spot ducks and red tailed hawks here while you walk one of four informal trails (ranging from a 15-minute loop to a leisurely 45-minute walk.

Indian Lands Conservation Area
Main St., South Dennis• (508) 760-6123

Some of the Cape's most awesome flora and fauna abound at Indian Lands Conservation Area, a 2-mile walk that hugs the banks of Bass River. Birders can easily spot kingfishers and blue herons in the winter. You know summer is around the corner when the lady's slipper orchids start sprouting in May. We know of a hiking aficionado who found, on three separate occasions, Indian artifacts of the Native Americans who lived here in centuries past.

Nickerson State Park
Mass. Rt. 6A, Brewster• (508) 896-3491

This 1,779-acre wonderland has 8 miles of bike trails that link with the Cape Cod Rail Trail as well as miles of hiking trails that meander through the woods. Some wind past the park's two main attractions, Flax Pond and Cliff Pond. The trails are also great for cross-country skiing in winter, if the Cape is blessed with a real snowfall (yes, it does happen!). Hike out to Higgins Pond, a major migration stop for endangered birds such as ospreys and peregrine falcons. You'll also see cormorants, wrens, hawks, owls, warblers, thrushes, great blue herons, Canada geese, and the common loon--it's a birder's heaven. Nickerson also has bayfront land on the north side of Mass. Rt. 6A (an easy walk from the park's entrance on the south side of the road) and offers ranger-guided interpretive programs and informative walks explaining plant and wildlife in a variety of habitats. Call for program schedules, or check the big board in the main parking lot.

Punkhorn Parklands
Run Hill Rd., Brewster• (508) 896-3701

Here you'll find a maze of 45 scenic trails throughout more than 800 acres of rugged parkland made up of marshes and meadows, quarries and woodland, pine and oak--a tranquil paradise interrupted only by warbling birds, howling coyotes, and the occasional mountain bike. Along the paths you'll spot old pumps once used by cranberry growers to flood these former bogs.

Spruce Hill Conservation Area
3341 Mass. Rt. 6A, Brewster• (508) 896-3701

This 25-acre parcel, hidden behind the Brewster Historical Society Museum on the eastern end of town, features a half-mile-long former carriage road leading to Cape Cod Bay and an expansive beach. Rumor has it that bootleggers used the trail during the time of Prohibition. Fragile plant life is abundant here, so please, as always, stay on the official path.

Bell's Neck Road Conservation Area
Off Bell's Neck Rd., Harwich• (508) 430-7506

One of the finest bird-watching spots on the Lower Cape, this magnificent 245-acre utopia of marshlands, herring runs, reservoirs, and tidal creeks is a favorite stop for the Cape Cod Bird Club, (508) 432-2528, which frequently leads walks here.

Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge
Monomoy Island, Chatham• (508) 945-0594

Accessible from Chatham only by boat in good weather conditions, Monomoy is a 2,750-acre, two-island wilderness area, one of only four remaining between Maine and New Jersey. Acquired by the federal government in 1944 and now under the administration of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Monomoy has no electricity, no human residents, no vehicles, no paved roads--and more than 285 species of birds inhabiting saltwater and tidal flats, bayberry and beach plum thickets, freshwater ponds, and a 9-mile-long barrier beach. There is also a non-working lighthouse (built in 1823, restored in 1988). Beach areas are closed from April to mid-August so that the nesting areas of piping plovers and terns won't be disturbed.

Quiet is the best word to describe Monomoy. In the winter, thousands of seals take harbor here. Monomoy is an important stop along the North Atlantic Flyway, and in May and late July migrating waterfowl and shorebirds stop here for a rest. Monomoy was once attached to the mainland; a 1958 storm severed the relationship. Twenty years later, another storm divided the island into two. The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, (508) 896-3867, and the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, (508) 349-2615, offer regular guided tours; see our Tours and Excursions chapter. Morris Island, a 40-acre island accessible by car and foot, is home to migrating warblers, and tidal flats provide food for oyster-shucking birds. Check your tide chart before visiting--the interpretive walking trail closes during high tide.

The Cape Cod National Seashore
Salt Pond Visitor Center, U.S. Rt. 6, Eastham • (508) 255-3421Province Lands Visitor Center,Race Point Rd., Provincetown• (508) 487-1256Park Headquarters, Marconi Station, off U.S. Rt. 6• (508) 349-3785• www.nps.gov/caco

With some 27,700 acres of federally-protected undeveloped uplands, bogs, pitch pine forests, sand dunes, and ponds in six towns (Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown), the Seashore takes up almost half of the town of Wellfleet and about 70 percent of Truro. In addition to six glorious ocean beaches, comprising nearly 40 miles of the finest seashore on the Atlantic coast (see our Beaches chapter), the Cape Cod National Seashore boasts nine hiking trails that meander through varied terrain. You can get free hike and bike maps at the Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham which is open all year (daily except January and February, when it's open on weekends only), and shows free interpretive videos in addition to hosting a variety of interpretive programs.

Right behind the Salt Pond Visitor Center are several trails, including the quarter-mile Buttonbush Trail, which has a guide rope and Braille map interpretations along the way. It's a good trail not only for the sight impaired, but for people who want to experience what life is like without the sense that most of us take for granted. Close your eyes and try it. Another nearby trail takes a wooded route out to the 1.2 mile Salt Pond trail, which passes by the Salt Pond, along Nauset Marsh, and circles back to the visitor center; you can also walk or bike on the 2-mile bike trail that leads out to Coast Guard Beach, past Doane Rock--a good place to stop and picnic (see our Cape Cod National Seashore chapter for more information regarding trails).

One of our favorite walking spots is the National Seashore's Fort Hill in Eastham, where one and a half miles of trails meander through fields with stunning water and marsh views, through woods and a cedar swamp. You're likely to spot rabbits, birds, and other wildlife, but watch out for monster poison ivy plants on the edge of the trail! We're also partial to the Seashore's longest and most difficult trail, Great Island in Wellfleet. Accessible by driving out past the harbor to the parking area, the trail is a hilly 8 miles (round trip) through soft sand, pitch pines, and marshes that offers breathtaking views of Wellfleet Bay. Look for fiddler crabs, fast-moving, harmless little black creatures so named because the males have one oversized claw that's reminiscent of someone playing a fiddle. Be sure to check the tides, since much of the trail is flooded at high tide. In Provincetown, check out the one-mile long Beech Forest Trail, where you'll circle a freshwater pond as you walk among American beech trees, sheep laurel, yellow and gray birch, and swamp azalea.

Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
U.S. Rt. 6, Wellfleet• (508) 349-2615• www.wellfleetbay.org

The Massachusetts Audubon Society operates this 1,000-acre-plus tract of salt marsh, woodland, beach, tidal flats, and moorland. What was once a turnip and asparagus farm is now a haven of self-guided nature trails and superb bird watching, along with a natural history day camp for children and weeklong field trips for older folk. Guided walks, canoe cruises through Nauset Marsh, Monomoy cruises and seal and whale-watching trips are regularly sponsored. The excursions are extremely popular and book up fast. The one-and-a-half-mile Goose Pond Trail, part of the 5 miles of trails, offers a look at a diversity of habitats and leads to the shore. It's an excellent place for viewing shore birds, hawks, and herons. If you're still getting to know Mother Nature, borrow or purchase a copy of the 32-page Goose Pond Trail plant identification booklet at the visitor center. It costs $3, but if you go in and ask to borrow the booklet, they will lend it to you for your walk. In keeping with the theme of preservation, the $1.6 million visitor center, built six years ago, uses passive solar heating and composting toilets. It's open year-round. A donation is requested: $3 from adults and $2 from seniors and children under 16. Of course, if you a member of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the donation is waived.