Shawme-Crowell State Forest

August 9, 2020 Sunny

Shawme-Crowell State Forest is a 700 acre forest of pitch pine and scrub oak, with campgrounds and hiking trails. It’s near the beginning of the Cape in the town of Sandwich, and is near the Scusset Beach State Reservation.

This summer, with Covid-19 travel restrictions, camping is an especially popular activity, but we were able to find a spot for a one night Sunday reservation about a week in advance. Fortunately for us, the weather was warm and sunny.

With reduced capacity, we were at site 48, far from the main entrance, off of the loop road, and with no immediate neighbors. This spot was also near the restrooms, which is always a plus. On the other hand, the showers were in a separate building in a different location.

In any case, the camping sites here seem to be well separated and fairly private. Ours had a fire pit and picnic table.

We pitched our tent without any issues in the early afternoon Sunday and then set off for the Cape Cod Rail Trail and Nickerson State Park, for a day of biking and swimming.

Here we are just after setting up the tent, which has a divider flap and enough room for a queen mattress in each section.

We had brought hamburgers and chips for dinner, and settled in just after sunset to make a fire and grill, after a long day. But yours truly bought the cheap-o Simple Living charcoal rather than the good Kingsford stuff.

This charcoal just would not seem to light and we had no lighter fluid. We had trouble starting the fire even with the “Extreme Fire Danger” conditions, some paper bags, and kindling gathered from near the site. It was getting pretty dark and we just had one lantern. But eventually the fire got going thanks to the fat drippings from the burgers, and they were pretty good.

Amazingly it was very warm that night (around 70 as the low), with some light wind and no mosquitoes.

After roasting a whole bag of marshmallows between us, the boys turned in early and unknowningly did a shadow puppet show for us.

We all slept well on our queen air mattresses that night, falling asleep to the close and loud chirping of crickets. Except for a brief scare in the middle of the night, when Diana and I woke to the sound of crunching gravel and voices. It seemed like someone was at our campsite walking around, and maybe trying to steal something (but what?) Definitely not an animal. After a few anxious moments we realized it was just one of the boys grinding his teeth and mumbling something from the other side of the tent!

Here we are the next morning around 7 or 8 am (it’s hard for us to sleep in while camping). In any case, after a simple breakfast of donuts, muffins, and cold brew coffee for us (and Tang for the kids), we started to pack up.

Diana took Miles to the nearby playground to check it out. Pretty nice equipment for a campground.

They also practiced shooting hoops for a while.

This is one of the few state campgrounds on Cape Cod and has good facilities and a great location for exploring the rest of the Cape. Sandwich has a few attractions as well, and Scusset Beach State Reservation is nearby (We heard this beach is great but were not able to get in as it filled by 10 am on Monday morning).

All in all, we enjoyed the camping here and wish we had spent at least 2 nights.

• We enjoyed the dense forest and privacy of the sites. Good location for exploring Cape Cod.
• Campground was quiet and well maintained. Nice playground area.
• We couldn’t get a fire going, and then there were a lot of large bugs, and then nobody could sleep.
• The campground was okay but I don’t really like camping.
• The camp was super good, and we ate, and we tried to make a fire and eventually we made a fire.

For more information: Shawme-Crowell State Forest official site