Our days on Upper Cape Cod: Part 2a

On our second day on the upper reaches of Cape Cod (Tuesday), Terry and I headed south to Eastham and the Salt Pond Visitor Center. We toured the small museum and watched a short video about the formation and transformation of Cape Cod. Then we headed for the beach. The nearest one was the Coast Guard Beach almost due east of the visitors' center.

Former Coast Guard Station. 

The handsome building above was a Coast Guard station for approximately 20 years.

Looking over the dunes toward the beach. 

Terry walks out on the beach. 

Terry on the beach. 

The tide was out when we looked out over the beach. Terry went looking for some shells and found herself dropping over a four to five foot drop on her way out to the waster. (I didn't feel up to testing my leg on the very loose sand.) Terry was surprised to find no shells on this beach. With all the sand and storm wash action the area experiences, you would think there would be some clams or scallops, but there were no signs of them on the beach. Shells may have been lacking on the beach, but I found a couple up on the dunes. A few of them were occupied.

One lonely snail on the dunes. 

Snails on the half shell in the dunes. 

After a short period of time, we went back to the parking lot near the former Coast Guard Station and looked behind the dunes where there were some estuaries and marshes.

Behind the dunes. 

Then it was on to the next beach and lighthouse: Nauset.

 Like many of the areas around the Cape, Rosa rugosa is abundant. And they were in flower. These plants are abundant and prolific. The propagate from large hips and from their root systems, too.

Red and white Rosa rugosa. 

White Rosa rugosa. 

 Like many of the beaches, there's a steep drop down to the beach. Nauset Beach is accessed byh a flight of steps. there was then a long walk out to the water and a small stream that had to be crossed. A few young kids were out in the wash with their parents and a couple of harbor seals were looking in from the swells to see what the giggling was about.

View of Nauset Beach. 

The road leading up to the beach is called Cable Road. The reason for that is the small shack in the photo below. This was the end of a very long cable that ran under the Atlantic to Europe.

Cable Hut and Nauset Light House. 

A short distance up the coast, there's another site that played an important role in the history of communication. These were at Marconi Beach. This is the site of the first transmission of wireless messages across the Atlantic.

Plaque at Marconi Beach

There were four towers here that supported the wires that formed the antenna for the transmitter/receiver. They sat on the edge of a sand bluff which has now eroded considerably. The operators' shack and the concrete pads of two of the supporting towers have long yielded to the ocean's power.

Then it was time for lunch...