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 Great Pond Beach
Why stop
- Calm, shaded freshwater swimming
Heads up
- Small sandy strip; stairs and wading to reach it
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 Pond Beach, 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 Pond Beach in Wellfleet0:00 / 0:19
“Great Pond Beach in Wellfleet is just ahead, a small freshwater swimming spot with a mostly shaded strip of sand. I'd choose it for a cool-off under the trees, rather than a day sunbathing or spreading out on the beach.”
Plays as you drive up to Great Pond Beach in the Parkwolf Cape Cod Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Long Pond Beach in Wellfleet
- Cahoon Hollow Beach and The Beachcomber
- White Crest Beach
- A Farm Fed by the Tide
- 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 Pond Beach
A shady break from the surfGreat Pond Beach is a small sandy freshwater swimming spot on Wellfleet’s Great Pond.
Great Pond Beach is a small sandy freshwater swimming spot on Wellfleet’s Great Pond. Go for a calm swim and a cool-off under the trees; its narrow strip of sand is mostly shaded, so sunbathing and spreading out are not the main draw. It’s a compact change of pace when you want pond water instead of ocean surf.
Getting to the waterA long, winding stairway descends toward the pond, then you wade through water to reach the…
A long, winding stairway descends toward the pond, then you wade through water to reach the sand. That makes the approach a poor fit for wheelchairs and wheeled beach gear. The beach address is 585 Cahoon Hollow Road. A small lot, restrooms and a picnic area are listed at the access; parking reports vary, so check current town arrangements before you go.
A pond with a bigger name than sizeGreat Pond is a glacial kettle pond covering 44 acres and reaching 56 feet at its deepest point.
Great Pond is a glacial kettle pond covering 44 acres and reaching 56 feet at its deepest point. The “Great” designation applies in Massachusetts to ponds of at least 10 acres, yet this pond is still less than half the size of Gull Pond. That’s a much larger freshwater setting than the modest beach suggests.
Frame the shoreFrom the sand, keep the curved shoreline in the foreground with pond water and the tree-lined…
From the sand, keep the curved shoreline in the foreground with pond water and the tree-lined opposite bank behind it. That shows the sheltered freshwater setting that makes this beach different from the Cape’s open Atlantic shore.
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.
