Provincetown Causeway and Wood End Light - Cape Cod National Seashore

After leaving Herring Cove Beach, we continued along the coast toward Provincetown on Province Lands Road. We were fortunate to find a place to parallel park near the rotary (traffic circle) at Commercial Street. Due to the one-way nature of Commercial Street, the rotary basically serves as an easy U-turn to head back on Province Lands Road to Bradford Street Extension (MA-6A). 

The 39-foot high Wood End Lighthouse was built in 1872 along with a keeper's dwelling. The dwelling was removed in 1961 when the light was automated. The mile-long causeway was built in 1911 in a successful attempt to stabilize the marsh and keep it from encroaching further into Provincetown Harbor. 

Hiking across the causeway to Wood End is more difficult than it first appears as the surface is a series of boulders with uneven surfaces and large gaps between rocks. We hiked about ¼ mile out the causeway before turning around at a group of fishermen on our October 2021 trip to Cape Cod National Seashore.

View of the marsh and Province Lands

Causeway with light on the horizon

Wood End Lighthouse

Looking back toward Telegraph Hill in Provincetown

American herring gull (Larus smithsonianus)

Some of the Province Lands dunes

A group of people fishing from the causeway

Provincetown Inn and Long Point

Another gull

Cape Cod National Seashore beach entrance fees are collected daily from late June through Labor Day, and on weekends and holidays from Memorial Day to the middle of September at select beaches. The six national seashore beaches where fees are collected are Coast Guard and Nauset Light in Eastham, Marconi in Wellfleet, Head of the Meadow in Truro, and Race Point and Herring Cove in Provincetown.

When an entry fee is collected, a fee of $25 per vehicle, $20 per motorcycle, or $15 per person is valid for the same day at Cape Cod National Seashore. Other fee payment options include the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($80 for a lifetime), Access Pass (free with a documented disability), and Military Annual Pass (free for active-duty personnel). Also available is a Cape Cod National Seashore Annual Pass for $60.

The Cape Cod National Seashore website is https://www.nps.gov/caco/index.htm.