Dune buggy Tour looking out over Pilgrim Lake near Provincetown

Before there was a National Seashore, four wheel drive vehicles could traverse the sand dunes at the tip of Cape Cod, traveling back and forth to visit dune shacks and go fishing. Tourists would pull over to the side of the highway and get out of their cars to run up and down the dunes as they approached Provincetown. This postcard from the 1960s shows a Dune buggy tour on the sand dune above Pilgrim Lake, which you see as you approach Provincetown from Truro.  Initially the National Seashore built a parking lot near Pilgrim Lake to provide a safe spot for visitors to park but quickly realized all the erosion damage taking place and closed the area. Dune grass has been extensively planted to help prevent more loss of the dunes. In 1946 Art Costa started Art’s Dune  Tours and his son Bob Costa has continued the tradition of providing interesting educational tours that explain some of the historic highlights of the sand dunes that span from the back side of the town out to Race Point and the Outer Shore. You can walk the across the dunes by taking the path at Snail Road and hiking across the sand  or you can enjoy the bicycle trails that cross the sand dunes as the Carreiro children do in the soon-to-be released mystery novel Remaining in Provincetown.