Corn Hill Beach

Truro's bay-side beach where the Pilgrims found their first corn. Calm water, stunning sunsets, and a fraction of the crowds you'd find at the Dennis bay beaches.

Corn Hill is Truro's bay-side family beach and one of the most historically resonant spots on Cape Cod — this is where, in November 1620, a Mayflower scouting party led by Miles Standish dug up a cache of buried corn from a Wampanoag winter store, an act that fed the new colony through the winter but that Bradford himself later acknowledged as a theft. The hill above the beach gets its name from that incident; a plaque marks the spot. The beach itself is a wide curve of soft pale Cape Cod Bay sand backed by a low, rose-covered bluff with summer cottages along the top. The water is warm bay water, calm and shallow with a long tidal flat at low tide that small kids spend hours on. Sunsets are uniformly extraordinary — the bay opens west across to Plymouth and the sky goes pink over the long horizon. There's a tiny resident-stickered lot that fills by mid-afternoon on summer days. No facilities to speak of; bring everything you need.