Chatham, MA —
For the Active Family!

There are so many great outdoor activities to keep your family busy in Chatham! Some of these are covered on my home page with the buttons on the right side, so please go there for extensive information.

• Swimming and Beaches…some of the best beaches around are here in Chatham! There are some North Chatham beaches on Pleasant Bay as well as the famous Nantucket Sound Beaches…both areas have considerably warmer water…by at least 10 degrees!... than Nauset Beach on the Atlantic! Use caution with the Pleasant Bay beaches as another breakthrough in North Beach makes much stronger currents there as well as at Lighthouse Beach directly in front of the lighthouse. There are several ponds for freshwater swimming…the largest being Schoolhouse Pond off George Ryder Road going toward West Chatham. Oyster Pond on Stage Harbor Road is a great place or young children.

• Tennis courts are available to the public at Chatham High School on Crowell Road, as well as next to the Railroad Museum on Depot Road and also one in South Chatham off Bobbies Lane.
• The Bike Trail is a very popular recreational facility in Chatham and it runs through quite a few towns on the Cape. Please see the home page for information on this.
• Hiking Trails are found in several places in Chatham…and they are legal…you are not trespassing! The Conservation Foundation has acquired over 500 acres of land to keep open space in our town.

The first trail is the Frost Fish Creek Trail off Route 28 (Orleans Road) near the Frost Fish Creek development and features woods, marsh and field plant life for about an hour’s walk. The second trial is the Barclay Ponds Trail at the Old Queen Anne and Training Field Roads intersection and shows wooded plant life for about half an hour of walking. The third trail is Honeysuckle Land, Off Stage Harbor Road which leads to the cedar swamp. The fourth trail is the George Ryder Road South Trail opposite Ocean State Job Lot. Here you will see woods, cranberry bogs and brackish marsh during a 15 minute walk.

To really find these places accurately, it is highly recommended to buy an inexpensive book: “A Beachcomber’s Botany” at the Foundation headquarters at Mayo House across from the town information booth on Main Street. There is so much good information to help you know and enjoy what you are looking at!