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Overview
About Great Island Picnic Area
Why stop
- Five tables sit in a deeply shaded pine grove.
Heads up
- No grills; all five tables are first come, first served.
Map
Where it is
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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 Great Island 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
Great Island Tavern Loop0:00 / 0:27
“You're coming up on Great Island Trail, a sandy walk through pine woods and along salt marsh. I'd choose the three-point-nine-mile Tavern Loop and allow about three hours.”
Plays as you drive up to Great Island Picnic Area in the Parkwolf Cape Cod Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Herring River Overlook Trail
- One Claw for Dinner
- A Chorus After Rain
- Atwood-Higgins House
- 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 Great Island Picnic Area
A shaded stop for hikersThis small picnic area sits at the Great Island Trail parking lot in Wellfleet, tucked beneath…
This small picnic area sits at the Great Island Trail parking lot in Wellfleet, tucked beneath a pine canopy. It works well for a simple meal before or after a hike: there are five tables, no grills, and seating is first come, first served.
Find the tablesThe picnic tables are at the far end of the lot, opposite the trailhead and portable toilets.
The picnic tables are at the far end of the lot, opposite the trailhead and portable toilets. The heavy shade makes them easy to miss, so look toward the pines rather than expecting an open picnic lawn. The lot is reached from Chequessett Neck Road.
Bring what you needPortable toilets at the trailhead lot are seasonal.
Portable toilets at the trailhead lot are seasonal. No drinking-water source or food service is listed for the picnic area, so pack water and a meal. With no grills and only five tables, this is a quiet break spot rather than a place for a large gathering.
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.
