Cape Cod Rail Trail

The Cape Cod Rail Trail is a 22mi paved rail trail located on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The trail route passes through the towns of Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, and Wellfleet. It connects to the 6-plus mile Old Colony Rail Trail leading to Chatham, and 8 miles of trails within Nickerson State Park. It also passes near the end of the Nauset Bike Trail leading to Coast Guard Beach in Cape Cod National Seashore. Short side trips on roads lead to several other national seashore beaches.HistoryThe original rail line was constructed by the Old Colony Railroad, which was later incorporated into the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The New Haven Railroad merged into Penn Central in 1968: it went bankrupt by 1970. The corridor was purchased by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1976, and a portion of the right-of-way was converted to the Cape Cod Rail Trail by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation in the 1970s. The current owner, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation leases the line from Route 134 in South Dennis to LeCount Hollow Road in South Wellfleet to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation for trail use.