“A Man May Stand There And Put All America Behind Him.”
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
October 9th — Our first National Seashore, and what a great one this is! Neither of us have been here before, so we were happy to be in this part of New England so we could visit. Of course, I as the CLO planned that our campground made this an easy day trek for us.
We had a perfect fall day to drive up the “arm” – stopping at the two Visitor Centers to get a good lay of the land as well as get passport stamps for our books. :) We also enjoyed visiting the Old Harbor Life-Saving Station which is a replica of one of about a dozen of these stations that were built along The Cape in the late 1800’s to assist shipwrecked victims. The original Old Harbor station was built in 1898, and very appropriate and much appreciated, the NPS Volunteer who manned this location is the grandson of one of the original surfmen here.
It was interesting to learn in the video shown at the NPS Visitor Center how all of this land was carved out by glaciers during the Ice Age. And change is constant with the shoreline being ever redefined due to the shifting sands and pounding seas.
We drove along a scenic road that took us through the protected dunes areas, and it was a big relief to see very little development around most parts. We had a nice lunch in Provincetown all the way out at the tip (which is commercialized), followed by a walk about the town. P-town, as it’s known, felt to us a lot like Key West, but less raucous – perhaps because we were there on a fall afternoon rather than a summer night.
This marks our 34th National Park Unit – NP (National Park), NHP (National Historical Park), NB (National Battlefield), NM (National Memorial), etc. There are over 400 NP Units now, and our goal is to see as many as we can along the way; our larger goal is still to visit all 59 National Parks. On we go….
