Top 6 Natural Monuments around Falmouth

Nobska Beach is a beautiful, white-sand beach below the historic Nobska Light. In Wampanoag, the indigenous people that have inhabited this area since time immemorial, Nobska means “rocky place” or "ledge.” This stunning beach offers fantastic views across the sound to Martha's Vineyard. Nobska Beach is a great place to spend the day exploring, swimming, and sunbathing close to the downtown.

Frances A. Crane WMA harbors some of the most ecologically important and diverse habitats in the region across nearly 400 acres of globally rare sandplain grasslands, pitch pine and oak woodlands, and scrubland understories. These areas support countless species, from imperiled butterflies, birds, and plants to mammals, native pollinators and common wildlife.

This segment of the Moraine Trail crosses into the Kettle Holes Area and is marked by white blazes on trees. This section takes your over gentle, rolling hills, through verdant wetlands, and past the occasional erratic boulder (large rocks deposited by retreated glaciers). There are also numerous clearings in the forest that are filled with bright green ferns in the spring and summer. In the late fall, winter, and early spring when there are no leaves on the trees, you can sometimes glimpse Buzzards Bay from the Kettle Holes Area.

Nobska Beach is a beautiful, white-sand beach below the historic Nobska Light. In Wampanoag, the indigenous people that have inhabited this area since time immemorial, Nobska means “rocky place” or ledge.” This stunning beach offers fantastic views across the sound to Martha's Vineyard. Nobska Beach is a great place to spend the day exploring, swimming, and sunbathing close to the downtown.

This trail (like most of the others in the scenic Beebe Woods area) runs across the top of a glacial moraine that extends from Woods Hole to beyond the Cape Cod Canal. This trail in particular provides a fascinating glimpse into the area's geological history as you traverse up and over rolling hills that formed during the last Ice Age some 15,000 to 18,000 years ago. You also pass by nearly all of the large, named boulders in the Beebe Woods, which were left by retreating glaciers. Some of the area's more recent history can also be seen on this trail; Beebe family, who owned the property before donating it to the town, were passionate about growing and nurturing trees, and many of the specimen trees found in the forest were planted by the family. This peaceful, beautiful trail offers a pleasant shaded hike in the woods and can be a great chance to explore a very different environment from the sunny beaches that the area is famous for.

The Knob is a well-known, well-loved spot in Falmouth. The Knob sits at the tiny tip of land where Quissett Harbor meets Buzzards Bay. From the Knob, you get one of the best views of Buzzard's Bay, which are particularly outstanding at sunset. On clear days, you can see all the way to West Island and sometimes even to New Bedford Harbor! This is a fantastic place to end your day at sunset after exploring some of the pretty little beaches near by on the neck of the Knob.