Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary — Attraction in Wellfleet

We visited on a late Sunday afternoon in mid-June 2025.

There were plenty of spaces when we visited. There are a good number of trees as well if you're looking for a shady spot. It is a little bit of a walk to the visitor center from the parking spots. The parking lot was packed gravel and dirt. It was well maintained. There are ADA spots closer to main entrance.

We arrived around 4PM and the Nature Center closed at 5PM. You can still stay in the park until dusk and there is a side exit you can take. I'm not sure if there are bathrooms available after the Nature Center closes however. The sign says to pay entrance fee using money pipe next to kiosk signs and map when building is closed. It's $8/adult, $5 (65+) and $3 (2-12yr old). members are free. There are a number of FREE admission for different groups and memberships as well.

The Nature Center itself was great and much bigger than expected. When you walk in directly in front of you in the info desk. All the staff were super helpful and told us exactly what we should try and do and answered all of our questions. To the right is the gift shop which had a pretty nice selection but kind of generic items. To the left is the hallway to all the exhibits.

This area was a lot bigger than I expected. They had a number of live animals in aquariums and tanks. Kids spent 15-20 mins in here looking around but we wanted to get on the trail. We took the trail straight to Goose Pond and crossed the bridge/boardwalk over and continued to the Try Island Trail. But we just stayed left and walked all the way out on the boardwalks. It does get really sandy so be prepared with the right shoes or be okay with sand in your shoes or going barefoot.

There were a few mosquitos here and there but I wouldn't say unbearable. If you kept moving, you were fine. Might be a different story if you were here birdwatching and stayed in one spot for awhile. There were also a ton a little fiddler crabs i think. Kids had fun watching them scurry away as we walked by. It was very photogenic and picturesque especially cause we only ran into 3 or 4 groups the entire time we were there and it was a weekend.

Overall a great place to take a walk. If we lived nearby we would probably have a membership here. If you're just visiting, it's a great way to spend maybe half a day. We only had about an hour total so we couldn't explore much more unfortunately. I bet sunset here would've...

Wellfleet Sanctuary is the closest to home I have felt since I moved up here from the Texas coast a few years ago. While the species are different, the pines and little oaks leading to the wetlands and the shore are a familiar sight. It was so comforting last Saturday that I cried the whole way back to the parking lot….

We specifically visit off-season to avoid the crowds, but we missed it and didn't want to wait any longer! But that meant we were able to see the visitor center, which was clean with tanks of local wildlife and even had chairs by the windows for bird watching. There are restrooms inside and a portapotty outside for when the building is closed. There's also a charging station for EVs.

Every volunteer was wonderful, especially the two gentlemen doing a bird count last Friday. My partner and I had a few wonderful birding conversations with them as we wandered to the coast and they were happy to let us peek at the black-bellied plover through their scope!

Thanks for taking care of such a beautiful place, y'all. We'll be back again...

This place was great. Very relaxing atmosphere. We has a coupon so we saved 50 percent. Unfortunately we didnt see as much wild animals as we had hoped or thought we would being a sanctuary and everything but the experience of just a nature with the few animals that we thought was well worth it. We ran into a turtle that had just laid its eggs and it was a pretty cool moment. But anyways just don't go hungry and bring your water because you don't know how long it's going to take you to explore and usually want to get their money's worth and explore almost every part of it and it is decently big. That being said I believe you can go to your car and eat if it's necessary but once you're in it it's just not the easiest to get out so (without wasting alot of time) that's why I wouldn't recommend doing that but if you have all day and you want to spend it there...