Marconi Beach

Particulars: Restrooms and bathhouse open seasonally.

Directions: Six miles north of Salt Pond Visitor Center, off Route 6 in Wellfleet.

Safety: Watch for bicyclists along Route 6, and where the bicycle trail crosses the Marconi area entrance road.

Prominent Features Nearby:

The Marconi site uplands are a landscape slowly recovering from European land-use practices, which stripped the landscape of topsoil, and then further from the effects of Camp Wellfleet, which added to the impoverishment of the vegetative cover during World War II. The landscape today, however, serves as an important upland heath community, which harbors several rare species, including broom crowberry and two types of poverty grass.

An observation platform at the Marconi Station site offers an excellent overview of the Outer Cape, including both ocean and bay.

The Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail is a 1-1/2 mile nature trail that descends gradually in elevation into the swampy environment that hosts Atlantic white cedar and red maple trees. The trail offers an excellent view of different plant communities, starting with heathlands, then stunted pitch pines and bear oak, taller pitch pines and black and white oaks, and finally the white cedar-red maple community.