Our local Conservation Trusts and Foundations, National Parks, and Wildlife Sanctuaries offer a wide variety of walks, talks, and activities for both young and old.  Navigate to the adjacent links to register for any of the fun and informative programs

The Outermost House Guided History Walk

Offered on June 22 and July 27

10:00 AM

Sponsored by Harwich Conservation Trust & Eastham Conservation Foundation, join a walk exploring the history of how the Cape’s outer beach inspired author Henry Beston’s “The Outermost House.”

Published over 95 years ago, “The Outermost House,” is among the nature literary classics that spawned the modern environmental movement and served as an inspiration for establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Born on June 1, 1888 in Quincy, MA, Beston eventually became an ambulance driver in World War I. After the war in the 1920s, he lived on the Cape at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham. Beston built a two-room dune shack called the “The Fo’castle” and wrote the story of life at the edge of land and sea. The Blizzard of ’78 swept away the Outermost House, but Beston’s impressions of living a year on the beach have endured.

Cape Cod Shipwrecks and Storms Walk

Offered on July 13   and August 10 

Sponsored by Harwich Conservation Trust & Eastham Conservation Foundation, join this interpretive guided walk with historian and author Don Wilding. Travel across more than three centuries to hear about historic shipwrecks and rescues, ranging from the wreck of the Sparrow Hawk on Nauset Beach in 1626 to the Eldia in 1984.

Wilding, author of four books about Cape Cod history, including his newest release, “Cape Cod and The Portland Gale of 1898,” and 2021’s “Shipwrecks of Cape Cod: Stories of Tragedy & Triumph,” will also explore some of the dramatic weather events from the “Blizzard of ’78,” and “The Perfect Storm,” and their effects on the shifting sands of the Outer Beach.