Lighthouse Beach

Below the iconic Chatham Lighthouse with front-row seats to hundreds of seals lounging on the outer bars. Strong currents make swimming inadvisable, but the wildlife show is unbeatable. Shark sightings are common.

Lighthouse Beach is less a beach to swim at than a beach to behold. Walk down the bluff stairs from the Chatham Lighthouse parking lot and you arrive at a wild, scoured Atlantic shoreline where hundreds — sometimes thousands — of grey and harbor seals haul out on the offshore bars. Strong rip currents flowing through the cuts between Monomoy and South Beach make swimming genuinely dangerous; the town posts no-swim signs most of the season and lifeguards do not staff this beach. What you do here instead is watch: the seals bask, splash, and bicker; the white sharks that draw the seals patrol the bars; commercial fishing boats run the channel home to Stage Harbor; and the lighthouse stands sentinel above it all. Bring binoculars and a long lens. Park in the public lot across from the lighthouse (30-minute limit during daylight) or use the larger Chatham Fish Pier lot a mile north. One of the most dramatic landscapes on Cape Cod.