Manomet Bluffs and Beaches, Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

This log bench in the right foreground is a favorite place to stop on my walk and see the beauty that surrounds us and feel the fresh breeze on my face....

..... stepping closer brings the sand into the view. There is no single road that runs along the Manomet bluffs. Instead, each neighborhood has its own road that runs for a few blocks.  This non-continuous feature keeps the speed down, traffic volume down, and random visitors down.  It helps the community retain its calm ambiance - a neighborhood that is mostly trees with houses rather than mostly houses with trees, if you get that distinction. It's not a gated community but, by having narrow roads and nowhere for public parking  if you don't live here, it discourages random visitors. Whether that's good or bad isn't my point - it just is.

Elsewhere along the bluff, an old house has been torn down to be replaced by something new.

Another nice place to sit a spell and contemplate my good fortune.

Not many folks out on a slightly cool temperature weekday. Massachusetts law dating back to the Plymouth Bay Colony in the 1600's apparently allowed private ownership down to the mean low tide line, NOT the mean high tide, thus, beaches can, and often are, privately owned in Massachusetts. There are, however, certain rights of passage along  these private beaches the courts have upheld but, if one can't get to the beach, how you might use that right of passage is moot.  As I understand it, many/most/some of the homes here have deeded beach rights to join one of the private associations that maintains access. (I am not a lawyer - I'm just a regular Joe trying to make sense of a confusing situation). Manomet/White Horse/ Priscilla have many private beach associations to manage/maintain access to their respective stretch of beach.

I like and prefer the simplicity of a chicken crossing sign more than the complexity of who and how the beach is owned..