uplands, and forests—that support more than 450 species of animals. The cultural landscape of CCNS is equally diverse. Preserved and open to public visitation are such historic struc- tures as Old Harbor Life Saving Station, the Nauset, Three Sisters and Highland Lighthouses, and the cliff-top site at South Wellfleet where, in the early 1900s, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi erected a telegraph transmitter that helped give birth to global wireless communication.
bays and marshes. Assateague’s famous horses (about 125 in Maryland; 150 in Virginia) have been around more than 300 years—descen- dants of domesticated animals brought by colonists to graze on the island. Information: 410-641-1441 www.nps.gov/asis. Fire Island Perhaps the most unusual and unlikely
The park protects two unique ecosys- tems worth seeing—Otis Pike Fire Island Wilderness, an isolated area of high dunes that is the only federal wilderness area in the state of New York, and the Sunken Forest, a 39-acre maritime holly forest, northernmost of its kind on the Atlantic Coast. Cultural attractions include Fire Island Lighthouse and the William Floyd Estate. The 1858 lighthouse, at the island’s west- ern end adjacent Robert Moses State Park,
Left to Right: Meet Jojo and Sonja, who live on Assateague Island. Piping plover nesting grounds are protected at Fire Island National Seashore. Tour the Sunken Forest at Fire Island. Visit the Life-saving Station at Cape Cod National Seashore or take a ranger-guided tour.
Hiking and bicycle trails invite visitors to explore hidden reaches of the 70-square-mile park. Among CCNS’s six swimming beaches, Coast Guard Beach in Eastham was a favorite of Thoreau and remains so today for local residents and visitors alike. Visiting CCNS is easy, with most park features situated off Route 6 between the entrance in Eastham and the eclectic village of Provincetown at the island’s northern tip. Information: 508-771-2144 www.nps.gov/caco. Images were provided by the National Park Service and David G. Houser.
features exhibits and interpretive programs. Information: 631-687-4750 www.nps.gov/fiis. Cape Cod “A man may stand there and put all America behind him,” noted famed author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, in reference to the magnificent 40-mile stretch of Atlantic-facing beach preserved today as Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS). Massachusetts’ national seashore encompasses an amazingly rich mosaic of ecosystems—sandy beaches, dunes, tidal flats, salt marshes, bogs, grasslands,
of all the national seashores, Fire Island National Seashore (FINS) exists in the very shadow of the Big Apple. Stretching 32 miles along the south shore of Long Island, Fire Island is a spaghetti-thin bar- rier island between Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Although much of the 9.6-square-mile island remains undeveloped, there are 17 small resort communities scattered around the island. With no paved roads, Fire Island is accessible only by shuttle ferries from Patchogue, Sayville, and Bay Shore, Long Island. The primary modes of intra-island transportation are walking, biking, and golf carting.
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