|
|
Town-owned Mashpee beaches
are for residents only in the summer. They are John’s Pond, Wakeby Lake and
South Cape Beach (located near South Cape State Park). Non-residents can
use South Cape State Park during the season.
|
| |
|
South Cape State
Park
Great Oak Road
508-457-0495
|
| This state park has more than a mile of sprawling beach
with picturesque dunes on Waquoit Bay and Vineyard Sound, along with
salt marshes and woods for hiking. The parking lot is closed between
Columbus Day and Patriots Day, though the nearby town-operated South
Cape Beach parking lot remains open. |
| |
| Bike Trails |
| Rte. 130 Mashpee Bikeway |
|
Starting at Heritage Park, this 2.4-mile bikeway
runs past the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum to the intersection of
routes 130 and 28 on the Barnstable border. Heritage Park can be found
on Rte. 130 heading to Sandwich near Women’s Workout Co. |
| |
| Camping |
|
John’s Pond Camp Ground
508-477-0444
|
| |
| Hiking Trails |
|
Mashpee River
Woodlands
Mashpee River
Road
|
| Eight miles of Cape Cod hiking trails stretch through 391 acres of
conservation land, which has abandoned cranberry bogs and is ideal for
fishing and canoeing. |
| |
| South Mashpee Pine Barrens |
|
With more than 300 acres and 3.8 miles of trails,
this property offers a diverse mix of Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, rare
pine barrens and mixed forests. Access is the dirt road opposite
Punkhorn Point Road and Old Dock Lane and parking is available in the
open area on the left. |
| |
|
Lowell Holly
Reservation
South Sandwich
Road
508-679-2115
|
| Most of this 135-acre peninsula dividing Wakeby and
Mashpee ponds was given to the Trustees of Reservations in 1942 by
Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Harvard University’s president from 1909 – 1933.
Lowell showered his land with American holly and the plantings have been
continued, joining American beech, rhododendrons and white pine through
4 miles of walking trails and carriage paths. There is also a small, unstaffed swimming beach. |
| |
|
Mashpee National
Wildlife Refuge and Jehu Conservation Area
Great Neck Road
South
|
| The national wildlife refuge was established in 1995
with the goal of someday preserving some 5,800 acres in Falmouth and
Mashpee under the ownership of government and private interests. The
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service currently owns 335 acres, but this is
closed except for interpretive programs. The abutting town-owned Jehu
Conservation Area is open, 78 acres of trails amid freshwater marshes
and Atlantic White Cedar Swamp. |
| |
|
Quashnet River
Conservation Area
Martin Road
|
| Some 440 acres near the Falmouth border offer a
front-row seat to the Quashnet River, where a trout restoration effort
is underway. Trout fishing is allowed, but catch-and-release only.
|
