The Dune Tour
The Province Lands are an area of expansive sand dunes. When the first European immigrants got to the area, the lands were covered with forests, but after just a couple of decades of cutting the wood to build homes and barns and fires, there was nothing to hold the thin layer of topsoil to the ground and it eroded, leaving these dunes. The dunes are now part of a national park; click here for more information on the park and the history and geography of the area.
One company that has been doing tours of the dunes since 1946 is still allowed to go out in their vehicles -- no other cars are allowed in the dunes. So if you wanna go, you've got to go with Art's Dune Tours. We took the sunset tour had a great ride.
Here's where you pick up the dune tour:
Here we are in the back:
A small brine lake has developed in part of the dunes.
The grasses were planted in an attempt to stop the dunes from eroding.
Over the years, squatters build "dune shacks" where all sorts of artists and introspective folks have gone to see inspiration and solitude. These shacks look pretty expansive, but dune shack living isn't for everyone. There's no electricity or running water out here.
In this picture, you can see the Provincetown Pilgrim Monument in the background. It's the tallest all-granite structure in the United States. You can climb up 116 stairs and 60 ramps to go look out of the top of it, but we never got around to doing that.
We eventually took a break from driving and walked around the dunes for a bit.
Then it started to get dark and we headed down the beach for sunset.
