Great Dune Trail

The Great Dune at Cape Henlopen State Park is the highest coastal dune on the Atlantic seaboard south of Cape Cod, rising approximately 80 feet above sea level from the surrounding beach and maritime forest. The dune is a living landform — constantly shifting under the influence of wind and storm — and has migrated measurably eastward over the past century, advancing over and burying stands of loblolly pine whose dead trunks emerge from the sand face as eerie ghost trees. The trail to the summit is short but demanding in loose sand, rewarded by a 360-degree panorama that encompasses the Atlantic Ocean, Delaware Bay, the resort community of Lewes, and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry landing. On clear days the New Jersey shore is visible across the bay. The dune summit is one of the finest coastal hawk-watching locations in Delaware during fall migration, when thousands of sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper's hawks, merlins, and peregrine falcons funnel past the cape on their southward journey. Monarch butterflies stage at the cape in September and October in impressive numbers, sometimes coating the leeward vegetation in orange clusters before crossing the bay. The surrounding beach and dune complex provides nesting habitat for piping plovers and least terns, with fenced exclosures protecting active nesting areas from late April through July. Dogs are restricted from dune and beach areas during the nesting season.