Start of the Buttonbush Trail at Cape Cod National Seashore
See the Hiking Trails web page for an interactive location map.
Length: .5-mile loop
Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy; mainly flat with a few small hills
The Buttonbush Trail is a loop trail that begins at Cape Cod National Seashore’s Salt Pond Visitor Center. To get to the trailhead, either walk out the back of the building and take a left towards the amphitheater or access it from a short path behind the restroom in the parking lot. A sign claims that it is only .2 mile long, but that doesn’t take into consideration the .1-mile walk, one way, from the Visitor Center. The loop itself is roughly .3 mile. If this extra distance scares you, you probably shouldn’t be hiking in the first place.
A rope runs the entire length of the trail, allowing blind people to grab hold of it and make their way around. Of course nobody has figured out how a blind person gets from the Visitor Center to the trail, so I’m not sure how useful it is. While accessible to the blind, log steps prevent those in wheelchairs from using the trail.
Rope along the Buttonbush Trail at Cape Cod National Seashore
Large discs attached to the rope mark where Braille information panels are located. Such signs also inform a blind person when to switch to the other side of the trail in order to continue hiking with the aid of the rope.
Discs attached to the rope along Cape Cod National Seashore’s Buttonbush Trail indicate to blind people that an information sign is present
A printed trail guide that caters to children is available in the brochure box at the start of the hike (return it when done if you do not need it). Numbered markers on the trail correspond to those in the guide. At some stops you simply read about the plants and animals in the area, and at other stops there are tasks for children—or adults—to complete.
Numbered stops along the Buttonbush Trail at Cape Cod National Seashore
The Buttonbush Trail is what I call a lollipop trail—walk out on the stick to reach the loop. When you get there, take a right and proceed around in a clockwise direction, the way the trail was meant to be hiked. This way you come to the numbered markers noted on the printed trail guide in chronological order. If you don’t care about the guide, it doesn’t make any difference which way you go. For the record, this review describes the trail in the clockwise direction.
As mentioned, those in wheelchairs are prevented from accessing the trail by a series of wooden steps that lead up a small hill. Now, just about anyone can climb the hill without the aid of the steps, so what are they really there for? These are actually erosion controls devices that prevent water from flowing rapidly downhill and carrying away the topsoil.
Erosion control steps on a small hill along the Buttonbush Trail at Cape Cod National Seashore
The trail gets its namesake from Buttonbush Pond, which is crossed via a boardwalk. This is a kettle pond: a pond formed when part of a glacier was left behind and was eventually covered with soil. When it melted it left a large crater that filled in with water. Today the pond is so full of buttonbush shrubs that you could walk right past it and not notice any water. It’s more like a swamp than a pond. Maximum depth is two feet, though it might get shallower in the summer. Red-winged blackbirds love living in the bushes, so you may see a lot of them.
Boardwalk across Buttonbush Pond at Cape Cod National Seashore
Unless you have kids or time to spare, I suggest skipping the Buttonbush Trail. None of the information is startling, and the trail is of no interest to serious hikers. There is a better trail at the Salt Pond Visitor Center, the Nauset Marsh Trail. It is only a mile long, but it is much more scenic since it flanks a pond with water in it.
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Last updated on February 20, 2024
