Sunday, September 13, 2015

Skaket Beach, Cape Cod

We wanted to explore at least one new beach on the Cape this summer so with the dwindling crowds that come with the end of August, we headed off for Skaket Beach.  The girls don't particularly enjoy extended car rides and this one was going to be approximately 90 minutes long, but there was no complaining and Allie even announced, "Cape Cod is my favorite place in the world."  So here's the deal with Skaket and other beaches on the bay side - high tide leaves you with a tiny strip of beach.  We watched the tide charts and with high tide scheduled around noon, we timed our arrival for mid afternoon.  There was a little bit of concern over whether or not we would be able to get a parking space as the lot only holds 175 cars but folks had begun to filter out by the time we arrived, around 2:30.

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I had read that at low tide, you can walk out for miles and I thought that surely this must be an exaggeration.  It's not.  Before the tide had even reached it's lowest point, other beach goers were so far out, you could no longer see them.  It was actually a bit creepy.  I've lived my whole life near the ocean so I know that it takes hours upon hours for tides to roll back in but there's always that what if.  What if you've wandered so far, the shore is no longer visible and the tide does come rushing back in?

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The girls were bummed that they couldn't really swim.  This was their only complaint.  When we first arrived, there was some water and it was warm but it was so shallow, even paddling around on their boogie boards was tedious.

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Fake running

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Oysters

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6 comments:

lesley said...

Wow, they weren't kidding when they said how far out the tide went! Nice pictures!

Anonymous said...

That's my favorite beach on the Cape! There are long tidal rivers at Rock Harbor, the next beach down, which collect all kinds of fun animals for kids to find. Fiddler crabs, green crabs, snails, little fish... I spent hours there as a kid. Plus the parking is free and you can watch the fishing boats go in and out. Sunsets there get applauded, they are so good! You are right that there is no swimming and you have to watch the tide chart, but there is so much else for kids to do, I never missed the swimming. Small world!

Wendy said...

Holy crow! I've never seen anything like that ever. That is freaky! Did you use your 50 or a wider lens for these? The scope is awesome.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful Photography!
Love, Grammy

Sarah said...

Thanks!!

We are adding Rock Harbor to our list of places to check out. Rich thinks his parents brought him there as a kid - he couldn't remember the name.

Wendy - I used the 50 (last picture is the one of Emily holding the critter in the shell) and then the rest were wide angle.

Amy said...

Skaket is nice... you can balance it out with a quick trip to Crystal Lake in Orleans after the beach is done. It's a great pond with free parking (though the lot is VERY small...you can drop off in the lot and park on the road). We go to Crystal Lake often when we're at the cape - Skaket only occasionally, because we have a bayside beach very close to our house. It's a different vibe up at that end of the Cape too - much lower key than Dennis/Hyannis. Looks like it was a perfect day - great to see the girls growing up so much - it's been a while since I have checked into the blog! :)