Crowes Pasture Conservation Area — Attraction in Dennis

A great place to take your dog year-round (unless endangered birds are nesting, check out the Dennis social media pages before making the trip with your dog in early/mid summer). Beautiful views and a peaceful walk. You can see the oyster farm in action too, which is neat.

There's basically three ways to access the area: walking, driving along the dirt road and parking in one of the designated areas, or purchasing an ORV permit and driving right out onto the beach.

Walking: park near the cemetery on South Street and walk up the dirt road, probably about a mile or so. A nice walk in cooler weather but a hot trek in the summer and lots of passing vehicular traffic.

Driving: the dirt road is bumpy, windy and rocky and can be tough for small cars. Ideally, I recommend all-wheel drive, and at the very least, a car with decent ground clearance. Free parking in what the town calls "upland" lots along the dirt road. Many spaces toward the end of the road are a quick ~2 minute walk to the beach. Check out the Dennis town website for a map of parking and make sure you park in a designated area only.

ORV beach driving: You can also buy an ORV permit from the town if that's your thing (and you have an AWD/4WD vehicle) and drive right out onto the flats.

This place gets quite busy during the summer, but early mornings are usually quiet. Tide comes in quickly and reduces beach space dramatically, so watch the tides and get an early start if you plan on driving...

Fantastic bayside beach that is dog friendly and you don't even need to pay to park (almost afraid to spread the word too much!). We visited around 2pm on a Wednesday in mid-August and there were plenty of parking spaces. We parked at the first lot inside the conservation area and walked in about a mile to the beach on great trails through the woods and marsh. Check out the Dennis town website for a trail map and to see where the parking is. Like typical bayside Dennis beaches there is a ton of beach during low tide. I saw that you do need a pass/permit to ride your car onto the beach. The afternoon we went there weren't any cars on the beach (perhaps bc of nesting birds as some reviews say?), though there were a couple tire tracks in...

NOT dog friendly NOT ANY parking every review on here is INCORRECT I got to a dead end on a one way parked for 5 minutes to let my dog out to take a piss after a one way drive through a dirt forest and got a ticket from people that clearly have NOTHING better going on because their life sucks and they’re a cop on the cape where nothing happens unbelievable also filled with cape...