The first summer Geoff and I were invited to our friends’ summer cottage in Eastham, I imagined it would be a fun beach getaway…but I’d not been prepared for love at first sight. Over a decade has passed since that first visit and my love affair has only intensified, especially now that I’m writing. I created the fictional Cape Cod town of Whale Rock as the setting for my book, THE LIGHTERMAN’S CURSE, just so I could spend time there, even if only in my imaginary world of words. But this humble and aspiring writer is only one of a multitude of artistic types who have found inspiration for their creations in the great natural beauty of the Cape. 

In the 1800’s Henry David Thoreau described the nearby Outer Beach this way: “A man may stand there and put all America behind him.” Even though development has dramatically changed the landscape during the following centuries, I agree with his sentiments. When I’m there I can forget about the rest of the world for a bit.

The Outer Beach is also where naturalist writer Henry Beston claimed refuge. In the 1920’s he designed a beach cottage atop a dune overlooking the open Atlantic which he called Fo’castle because it gave him the feeling of being aboard a ship. (For the nautically disinclined, forecastle is any sailors’ quarters located in the forward part of a vessel.) There he gathered experiences for his book, THE OUTERMOST HOUSE, which described year-round life on the shore of Cape Cod, including the endurance of some harrowing storms. Beston is considered one of the fathers of the modern environmental movement and his book a motivating factor behind the preservation of the Cape Cod seashore. Fortunately, his writings influenced many conservationists: “Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth’s and they are given to all…”

Three decades later the Cape Cod National Seashore was established by President Kennedy as a measure to protect the increasingly popular area from over population and erosion. This national treasure encompasses nearly 40 miles of protected shoreline extending along the Atlantic-facing outer Cape, with pristine sandy beaches and dunes, salt marshes, ponds, woodlands and cliffs as evidence of the success of this preservation enactment. Eastham offers the official entrance with trails leading from the Salt Pond Visitor Center to Coast Guard Beach near the site where Beston’s Outermost House stood until 1978. Ironically, Fo’castle was claimed by the raging seas of a ferocious winter Nor’easter storm.

It is a must to trek out to Coast Guard Beach for the impressive views of the Atlantic ocean, to watch for the bobbing heads of seals and to take in the picturesque Nauset Light. The trail to the ocean winds through woodlands where one might spot a fox darting across the path and past the large glacial erratic known as Doane Rock before opening to marshes alive with wading birds and butterflies.

To quote Henry Beston again, “The seas are the heart’s blood of the earth.” And indeed what I find most enchanting is the ever changing seascape of Cape Cod Bay. With a west facing cottage we are witness to the dramatic tidal range of the bay, transforming the vista every few moments and rewarding us with breathtaking sunsets, strikingly different between the extreme low and high tides. It also makes for interesting beach walking among the tidal flats and pools scattered about at low tide, with the ebbing waters leaving their mark in uniquely beautiful striations in the sand. It’s a shame to disrupt Mother Nature’s art with our toes, but she’ll leave yet another fingerprint in the sand at the next low tide. And as the tide rises, the rhythm of the advancing water becomes a powerfully soothing hypnotic, especially at night as the lapping waves lull us to sleep.

I would be remiss not mentioning one of Eastham’s interesting historic distinctions. A short stroll down the beach from our cottage is First Encounter Beach, named so as it was the site of the first meeting between the native Nauset tribe and the Pilgrims.

Unspoiled beauty, flora and fauna, a rich historic heritage…the Cape offers more than we could hope for in a beach getaway. And the moment the Eastham Windmill comes into sight my heart leaps knowing I’m just moments away from my lovely, peaceful Cape Cod retreat.