Navigating(?) Cape Cod

If you find yourself a little lost while visiting Cape Cod, take heart. It’s not you; it’s us. The Cape is already geographically irregular. Add to that the meandering nature of yankee settlers, and you start to think that the mapping of the area might have been designed specifically to sort out the locals from the washashores. And you’d be partly right.

We’re a pretty proud bunch here on Cape Cod, and have a love/hate relationship with tourists. On the one hand, when our population explodes in the summer, it really mucks up the works for those of us just trying to go about our daily business. On the other hand, tourism is our biggest industry. And we actually enjoy the same things that visitors do: great restaurants, beautiful beaches, shopping, etc. So while we welcome tourism enthusiastically, we also tend to make it a little challenging for you to ‘get here from there’. But I’m here to give you a little inside scoop. 

Upper-Lower-Mid-Outer

(image courtesy of Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce)

Logic does not play a significant role in how we designate areas of the Cape. The Upper Cape actually looks ‘lower’ on a map. The Lower Cape is low, but only compared to the Outer Cape, which is actually the ‘highest’ on the map. The Mid Cape is the only one that makes much sense at all.

North-South-East-West

Image courtesy of Town of Dennis

The thinking is: How lost can you really get? You’ll hit water eventually. So for example, in the town of Dennis, West Dennis is as far south as you can get, and South Dennis is smack in the middle, and East Dennis is all the way North. Hyannis Port and Dennis Port are on the south side, but Yarmouth Port is on the north side. And in spite of Brewster’s rich sea captain history, there is no Brewster Port.

Route 28

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

This is probably the most confusing part. Route 28 actually starts in Orleans, goes south into Chatham, travels west along the south side of Cape Cod, then in Falmouth takes a sharp turn toward the north and travels over the bridge due north all the way to the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. So technically it is a South-North highway. But for most of your time on 28 you’re actually traveling East-West, and for a good stretch from Orleans to Chatham, your compass will read due south while the highway signs will declare that you are traveling 28 North. Sorry.