Province Lands Walk

One day in late May I spent a few hours hiking the dunes of the Province Lands at the tip of Cape Cod.  I started from a parking area adjacent to Route 6 near Pilgrim Lake.  After passing through a pitch pine forest for a hundred yards, the trail abruptly opened to a wide blue sky over a broad expanse of rolling sand hills thinly covered by bright green grasses bending in the wind.  

The path wound through the dunes.  Soft sand made for slow going.  But who cares about speed when surrounded by this uniquely beautiful landscape.

These Province Lands are within the Cape Cod National Seashore, administered by the National Park Service.  The bill creating the CCNS was  signed into law by President John F. Kennedy on August 7, 1961.

Nineteen shacks are nestled in the dunes within the Peaked Hill Bars Historic District, a part of the Province Lands.  These were built starting about 1920.  A number of writers and artists were drawn to this remote location to tap their creativity in simple (there is no electricity or running water) solitude. Eugene Oneill wrote two plays while staying in one of the shacks.  Others who stayed here include Jack Kerouac, E.E. Cummings, Jackson Pollack and Norman Mailer.

I came across this group of shacks near the beach after walking almost a mile through the dunes.
  

There was a strong east wind buffeting this shack, not yet opened for the season.    

  I had a peaceful lunch sitting on a bluff overlooking the white-capped Atlantic.
  

A flock of black scoter were riding on the swells.  (Sorry, I had to include this picture due to my current addiction to birding.)  

On the return, I enjoyed the vivid color of salt-spray roses.  

I was so moved by the surroundings that I was almost inspired to write a play or maybe a poem in these magical Province Lands.  It is comforting to know that special places like this are preserved. Who knows?  I might actually write that poem during the next visit.