Great Point is the northernmost tip of Nantucket, a long sandy spit that extends toward Cape Cod across Nantucket Sound. The lighthouse at the end is visible from miles away, a white tower standing alone on the sand with no other structure in sight. Getting there requires either a four-wheel-drive vehicle with a beach permit or a long walk — roughly five miles from the end of the paved road — but the remoteness is the point.
The point is excellent for wildlife. Grey seals haul out on the sandbars in large numbers from late autumn through spring, and the waters on either side attract diving seabirds, osprey, and in migration a wide variety of shorebirds and waders. In summer, striped bass and bluefish congregate in the rip current where the sound meets the ocean, and surf fishermen wade out to meet them.