New England has gorgeous beaches, with long stretches of white sand, as here on Cape Cod and elsewhere, and also intricate, rocky coastlines, which are found mostly in Maine, whose 3,478 miles of coastline is longer than California’s.
New England beaches aren’t known for their gorgeously varied, multi-colored shells in the way the Florida and Gulf Coast beaches are, but if you look closely, you can come to appreciate the mussel, clam, oyster, whelk, scallop, slipper, quahog, and jingle shells that predominate here on the upper East Coast of the U.S.
Yesterday, on a beach at the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, I noticed how subtly beautiful the shells, rocks, and seaweed were as they rode together on the waves of high tide.

Almost reminiscent of a Tree of Life.

Seaweed at sunset.

Slipper shells piled on top of other slipper shells in a Yertle-the-Turtle pile.

A shell serving as an incubator for tiny shells.

The rocks can also be gorgeous, especially if contrasting seaweed is attached!

A riot of colors.

Night comes to the beaches of Cape Cod.