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Coast Guard Beach

Photo: Dennis Weeks / CC BY 4.0 · source

🏖️ Beaches

Coast Guard Beach

Eastham, Cape Cod, MA · Cape Cod National Seashore

About

Coast Guard Beach is the Outer Cape at its wildest, a long barrier strand backed by grass-topped dunes that the Atlantic carves and reshapes every winter. The old white Coast Guard station still stands watch on the bluff above, and the only way down is a shuttle from the Little Creek lot, which keeps the crowds honest and the sand wide. National Geographic once called it the best family beach in the country, but it earns its place on a best-of-the-US list for the cold clean surf, the seals offshore, and sunrises that turn the whole shoreline pink.

Highlights

Wild barrier-beach dunes shaped by the open AtlanticHistoric Coast Guard station on the bluff aboveShuttle access from Little Creek keeps the sand uncrowdedCold clean surf for swimming and bodyboardingSeal sightings and pink Atlantic sunrises

Getting there

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Curated guides that feature Coast Guard Beach.

Best Beaches in the US26 places

Best Beaches in the US

From Pacific cliffs and Hawaiian bays to Outer Banks dunes, Great Lakes sand, and Gulf sugar, these are the beaches across the country worth the drive, the flight, or the ferry. Some you walk a mile to reach, some you take a boat or a ferry, and a few you just pull off the highway and gasp. The best beaches in America, coast to coast to coast.