Beach
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The least crowded of the six park beaches, with a Truro town lot next door on a different payment system and an 1872 wreck in the sand.
Photo: Chris Sherwood, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center. Public domain.Public domain
Head of the Meadow is where Outer Cape visitors end up when the Eastham lots have closed, and then quietly decide to come back. It is the quietest of the National Seashore's six ocean beaches, the walk from car to sand is short and close to level, and the crowd is a fraction of Nauset Light's on the same August afternoon.
The name is literal. Behind the dune lies the Salt Meadow, a broad marsh that once opened to the sea and now sits behind a barrier of sand, and the beach takes its name from standing at the head of it. Truro is narrow here — a mile and a bit from ocean to bay in places — and the land behind the beach is low, wet and green in a way that the high scarps to the south are not.
The arrangement that confuses people is the parking. There are two adjacent lots serving essentially the same stretch of sand. One belongs to the National Seashore and takes the federal day pass; the other belongs to the town of Truro and runs on a town sticker or a daily town rate. They are separated by a short distance and by two administrations that do not recognise each other's money. Arrive at the wrong one with the wrong pass and you will be sent to the other.
The beach itself has one thing no other park beach has. The three-masted barque Frances went ashore off Truro on 27 December 1872, and at extreme low tides — particularly after a winter storm has stripped sand off the beach — her ribs and planking show above the sand. It is not a reliable sight. When it happens, word goes round Truro in an afternoon.
Head of the Meadow Road leaves US-6 in North Truro and runs east to the beach. The National Seashore lot and the Truro town lot are both at the end, signed separately; look at the signs before you commit to a lane.
Allow about twenty-five minutes from Wellfleet, fifteen from Provincetown and roughly forty-five from Eastham outside the summer. Highland Light is a short detour south off US-6 on the way.
The paved Head of the Meadow bike trail runs about two miles from here to High Head Road, which is the flattest cycling in the National Seashore and connects to the walking trails at Pilgrim Heights.
There is no bus route to this beach. The seasonal Provincetown beach shuttle serves Race Point and Herring Cove only.
This is the practical thing to get right before you arrive, because sorting it out at the gate wastes twenty minutes.
The National Seashore lot takes the federal vehicle fee — the same $25 day pass that works at Coast Guard, Nauset Light, Marconi, Race Point and Herring Cove, and the same $60 annual park pass. Cards only; the park handles no cash.
The Truro town lot immediately adjacent runs on the town's own system: a season sticker sold to residents and taxpayers, and a daily rate for everyone else, both set by the town each year. A National Seashore pass is worth nothing there, and a Truro sticker is worth nothing at the park booth.
Which you want depends on how you are travelling. If you are on the Outer Cape for a week and beach-hopping, the park pass or the annual pass wins easily because it covers six beaches. If you are renting in Truro for a fortnight and using this beach every day, ask your rental agent about the town sticker before you buy anything.
Both lots fill in high summer, though later than the Eastham beaches. This is usually the last of the six to close on a hot Saturday, which is precisely why it is worth the extra twenty minutes of driving.
The barque Frances came ashore here on 27 December 1872, one of a very large number of vessels lost on the back side of the Cape. Estimates of wrecks along this shore since the seventeenth century run into the thousands, which is why the United States Life-Saving Service built a chain of stations along it and why the Cape Cod Canal was eventually cut through the isthmus so that coastal shipping could avoid the whole problem.
What survives of the Frances is buried under the beach and appears only occasionally: timbers, frames and the odd iron fitting, exposed at an extreme low tide when the winter has taken enough sand off the profile. You will not see it in July. If you are here in late winter or early spring after a hard northeaster, ask at Salt Pond Visitor Center whether anything is showing.
Anything you find is protected. Wrecks in the National Seashore are archaeological sites, not souvenirs, and taking a piece of timber home is both illegal and the reason the next person sees less than you did.
The Highland Light stands a few minutes south along the same shore, moved back from its own eroding cliff in 1996, which makes a good pairing on the same morning.
A paved National Seashore trail runs roughly two miles from the beach area across the Salt Meadow to High Head Road, and it is the flattest, easiest and most under-used cycling on the Outer Cape.
Mosquitoes over the marsh at dusk are serious in high summer. Check for ticks after any walk in the scrub either side of the trail.
This is the open Atlantic, so everything true of Nauset Light and Marconi is true here: a heavy shore break over a steep bottom, rip currents in the troughs between bars, cold water sitting in the low sixties Fahrenheit through much of July, and grey seals working the surf line with white sharks behind them.
The purple flag with the shark silhouette flies here through the season as a standing advisory about the coast you are on. Lifeguards clear the water when something is seen, and that instruction is not a suggestion. Swim in shallow water near a stand, keep away from seals, and avoid dawn and dusk.
What is different at Head of the Meadow is the density of people. There are fewer of them, which is pleasant and is also a safety consideration: if you swim at the far end away from the guarded area, there is nobody to notice you struggling. Outside the lifeguard season there is nobody at all.
Facilities are modest. Seasonal restrooms and cold outdoor showers, no food, no rentals and no shade of any kind. Bring water, a windbreak and something warm for the evening — the wind on this shore rarely lets up.
Straight-line distances, so allow more on the road — the island is long and has one main parkway.
Landmark
The Cape's first lighthouse, established 1797 on Truro's highest bluff and hauled 450 feet inland over eighteen days in July 1996.
1–2.5 hoursGrounds and car park free. A small charge applies to climb the tower when it is open.0.8 mi away
Beach
A high sand scarp, a long staircase, and the bluff the first transatlantic wireless message left the United States from in January 1903.
2.5–5.5 hoursNational Seashore fee: $25 per vehicle per day. The Marconi Station overlook is free.12 mi away
Neighbourhood
Two and a half thousand residents, no commercial centre, and the narrowest, emptiest stretch of the whole peninsula.
2–7 hoursFree to visit. Town beaches need a Truro sticker in season; Head of the Meadow takes the federal fee.3.4 mi away
Beach
The beach at the outside of the fist, facing north into deep water — the one place on the Cape where whales are visible from a towel.
2–6 hoursNational Seashore fee: $25 per vehicle per day, or $15 per person on foot or by bicycle.8.6 mi away
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Only for the town lot. There are two adjacent car parks serving the same beach. The National Seashore lot takes the federal $25 vehicle day pass or the $60 annual park pass, cards only. The Truro town lot next to it runs on a town sticker for residents and taxpayers plus a daily rate for visitors, set each year by the town. Neither pass works in the other lot, so decide which you are using before you turn in.
Only occasionally. The three-masted barque Frances came ashore off Truro on 27 December 1872, and her timbers lie buried under the beach. They surface at extreme low tides, usually after a winter storm has stripped sand off the profile, and they can be covered again within weeks. You will almost certainly not see anything in summer. Ask at Salt Pond Visitor Center if you are here in late winter. Anything exposed is a protected archaeological site — look, photograph, leave it.
Generally, yes. It sits further up the Cape than the Eastham beaches that most visitors default to, it has two lots rather than one, and it is usually the last of the six to close on a hot day. It is also the easiest walk from car to sand after Race Point and Herring Cove, with no cliff staircase. The trade-off is fewer facilities: seasonal restrooms and showers, no food, no rentals, no shade.
It runs about two miles of paved path from the beach area across the Salt Meadow to High Head Road in North Truro, and it is the flattest cycling in the National Seashore — a genuine contrast to the steep dune loop in the Province Lands. The marsh views are the reason to ride it. At the High Head end you can walk on to Pilgrim Heights and the Pilgrim Spring, where by tradition the Mayflower party found fresh water in 1620.
