1 active Cape Cod alert
- CautionSharks active in park waters through OctoberSharks are active in park waters through October; heed beach guidelines and signage before entering the water.Official details
Overview
About Beech Forest Picnic Area
Why stop
- Shallow pond, forest walk, and picnic tables sit together at the trailhead.
Map
Where it is
Loading the Cape Cod map
Full mapPlan your stop
Before you go
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Cape Cod Tour Guide
Your drive to Beech Forest Picnic Area, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Cape Cod National Seashore. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this place
Beech Forest0:00 / 0:23
“Beech Forest is coming up, a good stop if you'd like a pond-and-woodland walk away from the open dunes.”
Plays as you drive up to Beech Forest Picnic Area in the Parkwolf Cape Cod Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Province Lands Visitor Center
- Houses That Crossed the Harbor
- A Duck’s Mussel Dinner
- Hatches Harbor Trail to Race Point Light
- 56 audio storiesacross Cape Cod’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Gray Seal, Coyote, Red Fox, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 32 trails, 55 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
More about Beech Forest Picnic Area
A picnic stop by the pondBeech Forest Picnic Area is a picnic stop at the Beech Forest Trail parking area in…
Beech Forest Picnic Area is a picnic stop at the Beech Forest Trail parking area in Provincetown’s Province Lands. It’s an easy place to eat before or after the adjoining one-mile Beech Forest loop, which skirts shallow Beech Forest Pond. From Route 6, turn onto Race Point Road and continue about half a mile; the parking area is on the left at 36 Race Point Road.
A poem at the tableThe picnic-table installation You Are Here: Poetry in Parks features Mary Oliver’s poem “Can…
The picnic-table installation You Are Here: Poetry in Parks features Mary Oliver’s poem “Can You Imagine?”, selected for the project by poet Ada Limón. Oliver lived in the Provincetown area for more than 50 years and found inspiration in walks through Beech Forest. It gives this modest stop a connection to the people and landscape of the Outer Cape.
Pair lunch with a short walkThe pond loop and its extension make a one-mile route that takes about an hour.
The pond loop and its extension make a one-mile route that takes about an hour. Birdwatching is especially good in spring and fall. If you take the 0.25-mile extension, expect steep log steps and some soft sand. Seasonal restrooms are at the trailhead; their operating season isn’t specified.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Cape Cod
459 sightingsGray SealMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
84 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
297 sightingsRed FoxMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
49 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
263 sightingsHorseshoe CrabMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
73 sightingsGreat Blue HeronMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Cape Cod. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
