Longnook Beach

Edward Hopper painted these cliffs. The steep staircase down to the beach rewards you with some of the most dramatic coastal scenery on the Eastern Seaboard. A Truro treasure.

Longnook Beach is the most cinematically dramatic beach on Cape Cod — a narrow strip of Atlantic sand at the foot of a 100-foot eroding sand cliff, accessible only by a long wooden staircase plunging down through scrub pine. Edward Hopper kept a studio in nearby South Truro from 1934 to his death in 1967 and painted these dunes and cliffs obsessively; the spare, brilliant light at Longnook is precisely what he was after. The lot at the top of the cliff holds maybe forty cars and is strictly Truro-sticker, so the daily population on the beach is naturally limited to whoever made the climb that morning. There are no facilities — no bathhouse, no lifeguard, no concession — and the cliff itself is actively eroding, with chunks calving off in big winter storms, so the staircase gets rebuilt every few years. The swimming is wild Atlantic surf with strong currents; the walking is what you come for. South along the cliff base toward Ballston you can have miles of beach to yourself.