Herring Cove Beach, Massachusetts, United States

5ClownC 5:00 PM Jul 10, 2022

Beautiful ocean beach with amenities and summer lifeguards
We spend entire days at Herring Cove! Views of boats, ferries, and the occasional seal. A bit rocky at low tide. We stay near the entrance and bath house where the lifeguards perch, but the beach is very long in both directions, with plenty of parking. We hear that down the beach there is an area where women tend to gather, and farther down a men's area, all unofficial but well known. There is a direct access to the men's section from the road -- notice the plethora of bicycles parked next to a sand path that leads to the beach. The conveniences include indoor and outdoor showers (cool water only/bring your own soap), toilets, and changing cubicles. A local deli, Farland Provisions, has a snack bar at the beach, and the few offerings are very good. In fact, we often stop first at the in-town location to pick up a greater variety of lunch items. Wednesday evenings in summer there are lively musical acts performing on the deck near the snack bar. Parking (plenty of space) is $25 per car all day, but if you are over a certain age or disabled, ask at the kiosk about eligibility for a National Park Service pass, and then parking is free! Currently, the cost for seniors is $80 for a lifetime pass, and $0 for the permanently disabled, for all parks nationwide. There are other categories of low cost/no cost, so it's worth perusing the websites of the Cape Cod National Seashore and the NPS.

5Jessica O 5:00 PM Jul 19, 2020

Nude on Herring Cove Beach July 2020
As a respite from being cooped up at home, my husband and I took a ride and spent an early July afternoon having nude fun in the sun at Herring Cove Beach. As usual, we parked at the far left end of the parking lot and walked 10 minutes farther down the beach to an area just before the “no dogs” signs that span the beach from the dunes to the high water mark. There was no need to wear face masks since, with the tide low, there was plenty of room to walk without getting closer than 10 feet from anyone. Groups of people were spread out at least 10 feet away from each other (typically more than that) all along the beach. Virtually everyone was an adult; I doubt that there were more than a handful of children on the entire beach. We chose a spot where there was no one within 100 feet on either side and stripped down. Everyone we passed was wearing a swimsuit, but there was no need. The beach has no life guards this year, and there were no park rangers to be seen beyond those collecting the $25 entrance fee for cars. We sunbathed, swam, and walked farther towards the gay men’s section without a care in the world. We saw a few single men sunbathing nude between where we set up and the gay section. Late in the afternoon, we fully enjoyed each other’s company. Neither our “neighbors” nor any of the people walking past us from the gay section back to the parking lot expressed disapproval of what they saw. It was a very pleasurable and fulfilling experience to satisfy our natural desires in such a tranquil and picturesque environment. Walking back to our car, we passed a single woman sunbathing nude about 5 minutes from the parking lot. No one else was nude, so we eventually put on our swimsuits (the c-string swimsuits that we wore on St. Martin in February when we weren’t nude). We got some questions about where to buy such suits, but we didn’t linger, as we wanted to keep our distance from strangers. We checked out the pavilion to see what the status was. The snack bar was not open, but the restrooms were open. The outdoor showers were working, but the indoor shower rooms were closed. In front of the pavilion there are several signs about COVID-19 beach safety rules and the fact that there are no lifeguards, as well as warnings about danger from sharks in the water and from coyotes on land. We saw no instances of either animal. It was good to be able to be topless in that area without fear of hassle. In fact, since there were very few people around when we were preparing to leave, we rinsed off nude under the outdoor showers. In general, Herring Cove Beach in July 2020 seemed less crowded and even more laid-back than in past summers.