Sand and dune grass on a summer day on Martha’s Vineyard. Long Point’s trails run from oak woods through grassland to dunes like these, all on flat, easy ground.
Long Point Wildlife Refuge: 632 acres of rare grassland, Atlantic beach, trails, kayaking, and seasonal access in West Tisbury.
Long Point Wildlife Refuge is a 632-acre coastal sanctuary in West Tisbury, protecting one of the last significant tracts of globally rare sandplain grassland on Earth. Managed by The Trustees of Reservations since 1979, the refuge combines a wild Atlantic barrier beach, freshwater ponds, pitch pine–scrub oak forest, and open grassland. Roughly 85–98% of all sandplain grassland worldwide has been lost since the mid-1800s, and Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket together hold about 90% of what remains.
Filmed March 2024The island moves on: shops, signs and prices may differ from what you see here. The text of this guide was checked September 2026.
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Summer (mid-June to mid-September): Turn south off Edgartown–West Tisbury Road onto Waldron's Bottom Road, then follow Scrubby Neck Road and Hughes Thumb Road to the staffed gatehouse. About 1.5 miles of bumpy dirt road. Expect ten minutes of slow driving.
Winter/off-season (mid-September to mid-June): Use Deep Bottom Road, West Tisbury off Edgartown–West Tisbury Road. Follow for 1.5 miles, always bearing left at forks. At the hanging "Long Point" sign, turn right onto Thumb Point Road and continue 1.3 miles. Free access, no reservation needed.
About 8–9 miles from the Vineyard Havenferry terminal (20–25 minutes). If you're visiting without a car, the VTA bus runs along Edgartown–West Tisbury Road but doesn't reach the refuge entrance. You'd need a bike or taxi for the last stretch.
Approximately 2 miles of flat trails cross the property over soft sand and packed dirt. The path winds through four distinct zones: pitch pine–scrub oak woodland, sandplain grassland and heathland, freshwater marsh and ponds, and barrier beach with dunes. Along the way you'll pass views across Long Cove Pond, Tisbury Great Pond, Big Homer's Pond, and Little Homer's Pond, plus an osprey nesting platform and a wildlife viewing blind.
Difficulty is easy: flat, suitable for families and beginners. The main challenge is soft sand near the beach (a sand wagon helps). The hike from parking to beach takes roughly 15–20 minutes. For the complete island trail guide, see our Martha's Vineyard Hiking Trails guide.
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The trails end at a barrier beach, a warm great pond on one side and the open Atlantic on the other. It is one of the few places you get both at once.
Long Point's beach is a sandy barrier beach on the open Atlantic, South Shore frontage with real surf. On the inland side of the dune, Long Cove Pond offers warm, calm, shallow water with a sandy bottom, making it especially popular with families and young children. Visitors report walking five or more minutes in either direction along the beach without seeing another person.
Swimming is at your own risk: no lifeguards. The ocean side can be hazardous with rough surf and undertow. The pond side is far gentler. Gray seals are regularly spotted offshore. For more beach options, see our every beach on Martha's Vineyard guide.
The rare sandplain grassland here draws well over a hundred bird species through the year. Harriers hunt the fields; terns and plovers nest on the beach.
Long Point's eBird hotspot records 185 bird species, making it one of the most productive birding sites on the island. Confirmed breeding species include piping plover (federally threatened), least tern, American oystercatcher, and common tern. In 2025, Martha's Vineyard exceeded 100 pairs of piping plovers island-wide for the first time.
Osprey nest on a dedicated platform on the property. Northern harriers hunt the grasslands. The annual Christmas Bird Count tallies 120–130 species in a single December day. Beyond birds, the property supports the North American black racer snake (tracked via radio telemetry since 2014), diamondback terrapins (MA Threatened), red foxes in the dunes, and white-tailed deer managed through seasonal hunting. See our Wildlife guide for more on island species.
Sandplain grassland is a low, open, prairie-like plant community growing on nutrient-poor sandy soils deposited as glacial outwash roughly 15,000 years ago. Massachusetts ranks it S1: Critically Imperiled. The Wampanoag people sustained these plains for millennia through deliberate burning. Colonial-era sheep grazing expanded them further, with grasslands reaching their greatest extent around the mid-1800s.
Post-WWII fire suppression and development destroyed the vast majority. The dominant grass is little bluestem, with roots extending up to six feet underground. Look for butterfly weed, yellow wild indigo, and the globally rare New England blazing star in late summer. The Trustees conducts prescribed burns. In spring 2023, six controlled burns treated over 130 acres to keep this ecosystem alive.
Summer (mid-June to mid-September):
Winter: free, no reservation via Deep Bottom Road entrance.
Key rules: No dogs or pets year-round (no exceptions; this is a wildlife refuge). No bikes on trails or beach. No alcohol. Carry in, carry out. No trash receptacles. Beach sections may close during piping plover nesting season (April–August). Remember tick precautions. They're abundant here.
Check our live webcams to see current island conditions before you visit.
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Edgartown Lighthouse is climbable daily in summer, roughly 10 AM–4 PM, with the shortest waits right at opening. Small admission ($5 at last check). Staff may close the door a few minutes early.
Joshua Slocum, first to sail alone around the world, spent his last years farming in West Tisbury and vanished from Vineyard Haven harbor in November 1909. The voyage, the farm called Fag End, the last departure, and what a visitor can actually see: the harbor, a marker stone by a country road, the museum's Slocum papers, and the book itself.
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Where Martha's Vineyard's oysters, bay scallops and quahogs come from: the public solar hatchery on Lagoon Pond that turned fifty in 2026, the dozen oyster farms in Katama Bay, Menemsha Pond and Vineyard Sound, the wild beds in the great ponds, the autumn scallop season and its limits, visitor shellfish permits by town, why rain closes a pond, and where to eat them.
Mytoi, the Japanese garden on Chappaquiddick: how to get there on the Chappy ferry, the 15-car lot, hours and admission by season, the pond and bridge, birch walk and camellia dell, the story of Hugh Jones, Mary Wakeman and the rebuild after Hurricane Bob, rules, accessibility and when to go.
Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown: the four easy trails and what each passes, the ospreys, the butterfly garden, hours and admission, Mass Audubon's kayak tours and prices, accessibility, the Wampanoag and Smith-farm history, and when to go.
Flying to Martha's Vineyard in 2026: which airlines serve MVY and from where (Cape Air year-round; JetBlue, Delta and American in season; Tradewind from private terminals), what parking costs, and how to get from the terminal to any town by free bus, taxi or rental car.
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