Getting (further) away from it all

Once you venture from Commercial Street, Provincetown offers more natural beauty -- more unspoiled land, sand, and ocean -- along its three-mile length than dozens of other tourist destinations combined.

Making the most of scenic Provincetown is best accomplished by foot or by bicycle. Start with a bike trip on the winding paved trails through the dunes of the Provincelands, in the Cape Cod National Seashore. The five-and-a-quarter-mile loop starts at Herring Cove Beach and winds through the woods, sand dunes, ponds, and vegetation of the Provincelands. You'll travel past the Race Point Visitors Center, Provincetown Municipal Airport, and the Coast Guard lighthouse, ending up at Beech Forest.

You can also hike along the bike trail, which gives you the chance to veer off onto one of the many footpaths, though hikers are cautioned not to walk on the fragile, shifting dunes. In summer, keep an eye out for beach plums and rose hips; in fall, you can look at lush cranberry bogs.

There are two other bike paths within the National Seashore. The Head of the Meadow beach trail starts at High Head, near Pilgrim Lake, and ends up two miles later at Head of the Meadow, in Truro. The path travels along the base of Pilgrim Heights, passing the area where the Pilgrims first found drinking water in the New World. And up the Cape from Provincetown, the Nauset bike trail is a 1.6-mile path from the Salt Pond Visitors Center, in Eastham, to Coast Guard Beach. The trail runs along Nauset Marsh, with the Doane Rock picnic area along the path.

Provincetown is bordered by vast stretches of dunes, beaches, and open sea. Within the National Seashore, there are more than 30 miles of beach, unspoiled by houses or motels, save for the few remaining dune shacks in Provincetown still allowed by the park service. You could conceivably start walking along the beach in Provincetown and go as far up-Cape as Chatham; many hikers do travel the pristine stretch of shoreline from Provincetown into Truro, where the historic Cape Cod Lighthouse overlooks the sea.

Another great spot for walking is the breakwater at the base of Commercial Street. At low tide, you can walk across the massive stone jetty to Long Point, a secluded, gorgeous strip of sand surrounded by ocean that represents the absolute tip of Provincetown.

If you don't bring your own bike, there are three places to rent bicycles in Provincetown: Arnold's Bike Shop, at 329 Commercial Street, in the center of town (508-487-0844); Ptown Bikes, at 42 Bradford Street, near the Community Center (508-487-8735); and Gale Force Bike Rentals, at 144 Bradford Street (508-487-4849), in the West End of town. At the height of summer, calling ahead to reserve a bike is recommended.

-- Loren King

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End of the world
Where the art is
P-town after dark
Where to stay
P-town dining roundup
On the cheap
P-town links

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