Beech Forest Trail

This trail is actually two connected loops totaling one mile -- the 3.5-mile Pond Loop and the 1.5-mile Beech Forest Loop. The Pond Loop trail starts at the parking area and circumnavigates a shallow dune pond, formed in natural depressions when salt water pushes fresh groundwater towards the surface. Your brief walk through the neighboring beech forest is essentially a trip back in time, when woods like this covered large swaths of the Cape, thriving on the rich, dark soil described by the Pilgrims.