First Encounter Beach

Named for the Pilgrims' first encounter with the Nauset people in 1620. Now famous for having arguably the best sunset on Cape Cod — the sky over the bay turns impossible colors.

First Encounter Beach is the standard against which Cape Cod sunsets are measured. The beach faces due west across Cape Cod Bay, and the parking lot fills an hour before sundown on any clear evening — families on tailgates with wine and cheese, photographers with tripods, kids running the flats. The shoreline curves gently, the dunes are low, and there is nothing between you and the dropping sun but bay water and sky. By day it's a wide, warm, shallow family beach with the same enormous tidal swing as the rest of the Eastham bay shore — at low tide the flats extend a quarter mile out. A modest stone marker near the dune commemorates the December 1620 encounter between Captain Myles Standish's exploring party and Nauset warriors — historically the first armed contact between the Pilgrims and the people who had lived on Cape Cod for thousands of years. Lifeguards are usually on duty, and there are real restrooms and a freshwater rinse. Get here early on summer evenings; arrive 90 minutes pre-sunset for a chance at parking.