For a quick, scenic survey of the natural setting, take a 1-hour sightseeing excursion in an SUV from Art’s Dune Tours (4 Standish St.), whose guides have been schlepping tourists through a portion of the Cape Cod National Seashore since 1946 (though the coast wasn’t designated as such until 1961).
Art’s son, Rob Costa, now runs the business. If you ask nicely, maybe he’ll play for you his carefully preserved answering machine recording from foghorn-voiced movie star Kathleen Turner, calling to inquire about whether her own dunes tour will proceed despite a rainy forecast (“Will you go OUT?” she booms, sounding like Lady Macbeth on a beach vacay).
Out on the dunes, it’s easy to see why painters like this place. Next to the glimmering Atlantic and under a kind of creamy light, ever-shifting sandy hills sport a patchy array of scrub oak, scraggly grasses, beach plums, and rose hips.
According to Costa, this vast protected expanse makes up well over half of Provincetown’s land area. It’s devoid of human dwellings save for 19 historic shacks, several of which are leased by nonprofits that use the buildings as temporary residences for artists and writers looking to work without pesky distractions such as indoor plumbing.