Pamet Loop

Dogs Unknown

Features Birding · Fall Colors · Swimming · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

This run begins along a stretch of the Old King's Highway surrounded by the nobs and kettles of a thick pitch-pine forest. The run then follows along quiet country lanes passing colonial cottages that have been on The Cape for hundreds of years before descending to the Great Beach for a run beside the Atlantic's battered cliffs. The final portion of the run ascends a hollow in the cliffs into the Pamet Valley and follows an unnamed trail past bearberry-encrusted hills and cranberry bogs to your starting point.

This run is approximately 5.5 miles along dirt trails, paved roads, and beach sand with moderate elevation gain. The approximately 1 mile stretch along the beach is strenuous.

Begin the run by taking a left from the parking area adjacent to the Environmental Education Center onto North Pamet Road and follow it to its intersection with Old King's Highway.

Follow the Old King's Highway surrounded by the nobs and kettles of a pitch-pine forest for about a mile until it merges with Higgins Hollow Road.

Continue to the left onto Higgins Hollow Road and follow it until it ends on Longnook Road. Continue to the right onto Longnook Road passing hundreds of years of colonial cottages on the way to its end at Longnook Beach.

From here, descend to the Great Beach and turn to the right for a run along the Atlantic's battered cliffs. Run the beach for about a mile till you reach the first hollow in the cliffs.

Ascend through the hollow into the Pamet Valley and follow the trail from the beach. At the next fork in the trail, bear left/straight onto the Pamet Cranberry Bog Trail and follow the trail past bearberry-encrusted hills and cranberry bogs to reach North Pamet Road.

Continue to the left along North Pamet Road to the starting point at the parking area.

The Old King's Highway was the original main road that crossed Cape Cod from Sandwich to Provincetown. On the Upper Cape, Route 6A follows the original route of the Old King's Highway. Throughout the Outer Cape, fragments of the original dirt road still exist including the portion followed by this run.