Duck Pond, Great Pond and White Crest Beach Loop

This 5.87-mile loop starts near Great Pond on Cahoon Hollow Road, swings east to White Crest Beach, then bends inland past Duck Pond and back to its starting access. It is the longer of two similarly named Duck Pond routes; choose it for a full pond-to-ocean circuit rather than the shorter beach-to-pond loop. Plan on about 2.5 hours walking, plus beach time. Published elevation-gain figures are around 300 feet.

Expect a mix of footpaths, sandy dirt roads, and short road connectors. The sandy stretches and junctions ask more attention than the modest hills do. Keep the route line handy: no manager-published map confirms every connection. The full circuit returns near Cahoon Hollow Road, and following the mapped line matters more here than expecting one signed trail from end to end.

Great Pond and Duck Pond are kettle ponds, depressions left as glacial ice melted about 15,000 years ago. Great Pond is close to the starting side; Duck Pond comes later on the return. White Crest gives the route its open-coast moment, with grass-covered dune slopes above a pale beach and Atlantic surf. At the beach, include both the dune vegetation and water in a photo so the coast reads as more than a strip of sand.

The route track begins at a footpath near 585 Cahoon Hollow Road, but a public lot and legal parking at that start could not be verified. The public right-of-way across every connector also lacks a manager-published description, so confirm access and parking locally. Cape Cod National Seashore prohibits pets on most walking trails and limits access to ponds and lifeguarded beaches by season; the land managers for the complete route are not established, so confirm pet rules before bringing a dog.