Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
Accessibility at Wellfleet Bay
At Wellfleet Bay, we offer a number of accessible features, guides, and equipment to make the sanctuary welcoming to all.
Accessible Features
- Accessible parking: two van-accessible spaces
- Nature Center featuring accessible restrooms, engaging exhibit hall displays, gift shop, and educational activity spaces
- All Persons Trail: 0.5-mile universally designed out-and-back trail (0.25-miles each way)
- Bird feeders viewable from the indoor exhibit hall, with livestream cameras for remote viewing from anywhere
- Picnic area with ADA-accessible picnic tables
- Nature Play Area featuring a playhouse with ramp access
- Pollinator Garden with benches and a shade pergola
Adaptive Equipment and Mobility Supports
Visitors are welcome to use their own mobility devices at our wildlife sanctuaries. A day permit is required for the use of electric or electronic power-driven mobility devices on sanctuary trails. Use is subject to restrictions on size, speed, weight, and other safety requirements.
The sanctuary offers a variety of mobility supports and adaptive equipment to invite everyone to enjoy the beauty of nature in their own way. The following items are available to borrow for free during sanctuary visits, programs, and volunteer opportunities:
- GRIT Freedom All-Terrain Wheelchair
- Rollator All-Terrain Walker
- Foldable Tripod Seat Cane
- Bose Hearphones: conversation-enhancing headphones that are used with the free Bose Hear App, which must be downloaded to the user’s personal mobile device
- Family-friendly education and activity materials
- Binoculars, including auto-focus and easy focus
- Field guides, including a large format edition of the Petersons Field Guide to Eastern Birds All Persons Trail
Borrowing Adaptive Equipment & Mobility Supports
Whether you are visiting the sanctuary as an individual, group, or for volunteering, equipment can be reserved for your visit in advance by calling 508-349-2615 or emailing [email protected]. Equipment is also available on a first-come, first-served basis during operating hours.
Car keys, a driver’s license, or other government-issued ID will be held as collateral. You will also be asked to provide the number to a cell phone that you’ll have with you while on the trail. All equipment must be returned at least 15 minutes before the Nature Center closes.
All Persons Trail
Mass Audubon’s All Persons Trails are designed with universal access in mind. The All Persons Trail at Wellfleet Bay overlays the Robert R. Read-All Persons Pathway and Goose Pond Trail. The trail is largely flat, surfaced with a stone dust mixture, and designed to accommodate wheelchairs, walkers, and other mobility devices. Multi-use seating areas are regularly spaced along the trail to provide a space to rest and take in the surroundings.
Distance
The out-and-back trail is approximately 0.25 miles long each way (0.5 miles total), beginning at the Nature Center and ending at Goose Pond boardwalk. The trail passes through diverse habitats including a pollinator garden, vernal pool, pine-oak forest, freshwater pond, and salt marsh.
Trail Highlights
- Pollinator garden with shade pergola and benches
- Largely flat, crushed-gravel trail surface with one slope approximately 100 yards from the trailhead
- Scenic overlook of the salt marsh
- Short boardwalk leading to sturdy dock with a toe lip, providing peaceful views of Silver Spring
- Boardwalk leading to deck with sturdy railings and a bench offering scenic views of Goose Pond and the salt marsh
- Regularly spaced multi-use seating areas along the trail
- Whenever possible, Mass Audubon All Persons Trails follow the U.S. Forest Service Trail Accessibility Guidelines (FSTAG) with the intention of maximizing accessibility of the trails while protecting the unique characteristics of the natural settings at Mass Audubon Wildlife Sanctuaries
- Following the U.S. Forest Service Trail Accessibility Guidelines (FSTAG), Mass Audubon All Persons Trails are designed so that most of the trail has a running slope (grade) that does not exceed 1:20 (5 percent), though for short distances of up to 50 feet, the maximum running slope could be as great as 1:8 (12 percent)
Want to learn more? Explore accessibility at Mass Audubon