Camping: Cape Cod 2026, Day Two
I spent four hours at Heritage Museums & Gardens. Later in the afternoon I explored Sandwich and the Cape Cod Canal Trail on my bicycle.
Monday, September 21, 2026, was the second of five days of camping at Shawme-Crowell State Forest in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod.
For the previous day of this five-day camping trip, see Cape Cod 2026, Day One.
Morning Activities
I slept 11:30–5:00 with short interruptions. It rained periodically overnight but stopped at about 7:00 a.m. I explored the empty campsites in the local loop (only three sites out of about twenty were occupied). I made and ate breakfast (granola, muesli, and cocoa mix; two cookies).
I installed the pedals on my bike and straightened the handlebars. I rode all paved roads in the campground, about 4.8 miles. There are some very steep (but short) hills where I used my lowest gear, and this became a HIIT workout. My fitness was not what I wished.
Heritage Museums & Gardens
Looking at a map, I discovered the campground was close to Heritage Museums & Gardens. I walked over using forest trails, less than a mile.
Trail to Heritage Museums & Gardens in Shawme-Crowell State Forest
Fungal Growth
Trail Approaching Heritage Museums & Gardens
I spent four hours looking at the gardens and museums, including lunch. My step counts suggest I walked 5.5 miles during my visit.
Pink Flowers in Gardens by Parking Area
Welcome Center
Hydrangea Test Garden
The grounds contain many kinds of trees with good labels.
Bark of Japanese Stewartia
Cape Cod was inhabited by the Wampanoag peoples before European colonists arrived. The gardens contain a mush8n made from a white pine tree. From a sign:
MUSH8N: Water—whether that be ponds, rivers, or oceans—plays a key part in Wampanoag life. In the pre-contact era, people usually traveled by foot or by mush8n (pronounced mishoon), which means “boat.” This 12–foot mush8n is suitable for two people, while much larger ones could hold up to forty people. With rivers as highways, Wampanoag people could use a mush8n to fish, travel, and interact with other tribes. This mush8n was made by Wampanoag culture-keepers who work to research, maintain, and pass on their tribe’s traditions to the next generations.
WÔPANÂAK “People of the first light”: The Wôpanâak (or Wampanoag in English) have lived in what is now Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island for more than 12,000 years. Today, many Wampanoag still live on ancestral lands including what is now Cape Cod, Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard), and Capoag (Nantucket).
A Mush8n
In another location in the gardens is a wetu, a domed house made of branches and bark.
A building on the grounds contains a working carousel that was installed in 1972. It has been painstakingly restored.
Carousel
Another building contained a big exhibit about growing and harvesting cranberries. I am now fully educated about cranberries.
The grounds contain a sundial with extensive information, including the equation of time, for accurately determining local time. (Unfortunately, the sun was behind clouds.)
Sundial with Flume Fountain in the Background
I ate a delicious lunch of clam chowder and a chicken cranberry sandwich with unsweetened iced tea at Lilly’s Café.
A replica of a Shaker round house contains the car museum, with beautifully restored models of automobiles from the 1890s to the near present. My father would have loved this museum.
Replica of Shaker Round House
I walked back to my campsite, arriving at 2:30 p.m.
Afternoon Activities
At 3:15 p.m. I rode my bicycle into the part of Sandwich near the canal, exploring the beach on Cape Cod Bay and the adjacent Sandwich Boardwalk. I rode around the marina and continued on the Cape Cod Canal Trail to the Sagamore Bridge before returning to the campground. I rode 14.12 miles according to my watch, finishing at 5:15 p.m.
The weather in the afternoon was mostly sunny, 62 °F. Because I had eaten an enormous lunch at Heritage Museum & Gardens, my dinner was cookies, crackers, and string cheese.
I put on a stocking hat and walked another mile after dinner to get warm. The owl I had heard Sunday night began hooting again at dusk. I climbed into my sleeping bag at 7:20 p.m. Because the sky was clear, with a first quarter moon low in the east, I pulled back the rain fly of my tent to allow moonlight to bathe me in my sleep. I slept 7:30–9:00 p.m., listened to an audiobook for a while, and fell back asleep for the rest of the night.
For the third day of this five-day camping trip, see Cape Cod 2026, Day Three.