Great Island Trail

This area is beautiful and the Gut beach nearby is an spectacle. Get there early morning and you will find little islands that will quickly disappear under the tide. Amazing.

I think the signage has been improved since other reviewers visited — we had no trouble finding our way from the main parking lot out to Jeremy’s Point and back with clear signs. This one’s a thigh burner — you start out about 10 minutes in the woods going downhill, then about a mile around a salt marsh (some sand, some more solid ground), back into the woods for some up and down gradual hills, then back out onto another traverse around a marsh, up over a dune, and onto the beach itself for the last bit out to the point. Then repeat in reverse for a 7.5 mile round trip (according to my RunKeeper), without the Tavern side-​trip. It was a beautiful cloudless 50 degree Easter Sunday and we hardly saw any other people outside of the areas near parking lots. Gorgeous way to spend a morning, highly recommended, and bring your camera. Also, if you take a backpack, try packing out some of the beach trash — it washes up and without frequent visitors, it appears to pile up.

I cannot stop talking about this place. It was so serene and beautiful that I don’t think that there is a photo that can do it justice.
I actually visited this place twice in one day. In the morning we kayaked from Wellfleet harbor to one of the beaches that extends out into the bay. After the crazy kayaking against the winds and waves, the beach served as a welcome rest. Walking just a little down the coast, I was taken aback by the beauty. It felt like we were in a different country.
So we convinced our friends to return for a hike later that same day. While I thought we were prepared with sneakers, water, and of course our swimming gear, the walk was a little more intense than we expected. So while I loved every moment of the day, word of warning, bring lots of water and snacks to keep your energy up. Still, after finally getting back to our car tired and hungry, our group thought that the hike was totally worth it.
Over the course of the hike around the point, you get to experience the dunes, the forest, and the beach. What more can you ask for.

Best hidden trail on the Cape. Many different habitats to hike in, pine forest, salt marsh and outer beach. Free parking and secluded beach is a plus. Saw seals out by the point. Water was cool and clear and so good for swimming.

long expansive… can i emphasis long more? trails. Amazingly serene, beautiful, bla bla bla,… positive adjectives. go here for quiet and an awesome experience.
You may get wet, but only up to your knees, and who cares about a little water on cape cod, right? its a lovely attraction, with somewhat, well actually horribly marked trail guides. I dont think the guides (signs) have been updated in a decade… so you will get lost if you intend to go to the tavern, which, by the way is just about 20 rocks that i assume people have tampered with over the years. Go with flip flops, or shoes, because you will be going through unruly tall grass, and tics, are a thing most commonly found on cape cod. There are barely any people around, and the space is huge, so you can get away and have a romantic, or group get away.
great experience, but dont come here with the objective to see markers that will lead to clear and exact locations, IE tavern… cause chances are you will get frustrated and want to give up.

Absolutely one of the best hikes on Cape Cod. However, the beaches that are seen along this route are not some of the Cape’s finest. They are very quiet and unspoiled (there is no development here), but the beach is semi-​rocky with lots of ocean debree.
Maybe it was just during our visit, but we were able to hike far out towards Jeremy Point even though it was exactly high tide. I think that the barrier beach has been built over the last few years. I don’t think that the old rule of «visiting only during low tide» really applies anymore.
Make sure to hike the beach route back to the car. Look for a path through the dunes near the mansion that sits near the start of the hike.
Bring a lot of water and be prepared to see a lot of wildlife — including piping ploves, crabs and seals. There also tends to be a lot of dead wildlife along this route as well (we saw two dead dolphins and 20 dead birds).

The Great Island Trail is one of my favorites! It’s a great hike out to Jeremy Point or if you don’t want to go all that way, you can always take one of the trails over the dunes and relax on the secluded beach. It’s such a nice break from the overcrowded ocean-​side beaches of the national seashore.
A word of caution, there are lots of little crabs and creepy crawly critters in the marshy sand.

Unlike most trails on the cape the Great Island Trail is a hike. The trail runs the length of undeveloped Great Island out to Jeremy’s Point. If hiked in its entirety it takes most of the day. Lunch and a couple bottles of water are a necessity. Its a little long for most kids but you can loop around about midway through which is a good length if you do have kids with you or are running out of steam. Let me stress one more time to bring your own water, there is no fresh water for the length of the trail.

A
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One of the best hikes on Cape Cod, it goes down a spit of land that’s part of Cape Cod National Seashore. Water, water everywhere, but naught a drop to drink so you better bring your own. Beautiful salt air and magical sea breezes. On a clear day you can see Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown.
The hike starts in a conveniently large parking area at the end of Griffin island Road and continues down one of the largest areas of undeveloped beaches on the Cape. Thousands of artifacts and remains of an old tavern were found in this area by archaeologists and signs are placed along the trail explaining the sites.
The trail itself is not easy, lots of soft sand and even marshy grass. Nasty biting flies love this place so strong bug spay is not just recommended but absolutely necessary. Going in the off season is a good way of avoiding the horrible flies.
The end of the trail gets a bit tricky. You can walk for about 3 miles and then turn back or go all the way down to Jeremy Point which is about another mile and a half. The problem is that during very high tides this last area is underwater so you have to time it right or probably drown. Adds a bit of excitement to an already fantastic hike.