Cape Cod Massachusetts
One trip to Cape Cod Massachusetts and you’ll understand why people return year after year to enjoy time in this very historical part of the country. The place is packed with charm, kissed by the sea, and the weather is pretty close to perfect.
Although not known by the same name at the time, Cape Cod Massachusetts was the very first stop the Pilgrims made in the New World. A brief landing in the town now known as Provincetown led to the signing of the Mayflower Compact, a few days of rest, and then the Pilgrims were off again to establish a permanent settlement at Plymouth, nestled into a cove on the opposite side of Cape Cod Bay.
Maritime history was made in Cape Cod Massachusetts, as would be expected by its geography and location. The whaling and fishing trades, with operations headquartered on the Cape, prospered for centuries. The town of Brewster, located on the area of the peninsula known as the Lower Cape, is the home to many sea captains who made history for their daring and adventurous sea voyages.
From a bird’s eye view, Cape Cod Massachusetts looks a bit like an arm, flexed at the elbow, jutting out from the mainland of the state and into the Atlantic Ocean. The Cape is surrounded by water, with Cape Cod Bay to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Nantucket Sound to the south, and Buzzards Bay to the west.
The area known as Cape Cod Massachusetts includes the peninsula itself but it also encompasses many islands. Two of the larger ones, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, are very well known but there are dozens of smaller islands less famous.
More than 43,000 acres of the area make up the Cape Cod National Seashore, one of the many attractions that keep the tourists returning in droves every year to Cape Cod Massachusetts. The park includes six beaches where sunning and swimming are beyond compare, dramatic views of cliffs and sand dunes, kettle ponds of cool and refreshing freshwater that is crystal clear, nature trails, and educational programs conducted by the park’s rangers that are designed to delight young and old. More than 43,000 acres of the area make up the Cape Cod National Seashore, one of the many attractions that keep the tourists returning in droves every year to Cape Cod Massachusetts. The park includes six beaches where sunning and swimming are beyond compare, dramatic views of cliffs and sand dunes, kettle ponds of cool and refreshing freshwater that is crystal clear, nature trails, and educational programs conducted by the park’s rangers that are designed to delight young and old.
It’s impossible to think about Cape Cod Massachusetts without thinking about the seven lighthouses that dot the seacoast along the peninsula and on some of the outlying islands.
The climate around Cape Cod Massachusetts is more moderate than the mainland of the state, thanks in part to its proximity to the sea, which helps cool the area in the summer and keeps it a bit warmer in the winter than the mainland. There are temperature extremes during both the summer and the winter, however, so the weather here can be as erratic as it is anywhere.
Cape Cod Massachusetts is in zone 7 of the US Department of Agriculture’s hardiness index, making it the northernmost peak for this particular growing zone. Many plants native to the area grow abundantly in areas much further south. The area gets less than 40 inches of rain each year, lower than the rest of New England, but the skies are often dotted with clouds and the fogs are heavy enough to make it easy to understand the value of the lighthouses to sailors and sea captains braving the waters in the days before modern-day navigation technologies.