Sandy Point Trail

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SCENIC SEACOAST WALKS
Stratham, NH

Exercise, enjoy the scenery and learn about salt marshes. It’s all possible here at the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The walk is shorter than the name – just a half mile, but it’s among the best maintained and most interesting half miles in the Seacoast. Not for runners, but for walkers in the heart of the estuary that makes this region unique.

Name: Sandy Point Trail
Phone: (603) 778-0015
Location: Between Portsmouth and Exeter on Route 33 (formerly 101) turn at the historic Wiggin homestead in Strartham / Greenland on follow direction to Depot Road.
Rules: Carry in, carry out. Do not remove anything. Stay on trail and boardwalk.
Hours: Dawn to dusk in season.
Dogs: Sorry, no dogs allowed at Sandy Point.
Contact Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve web site

With the exception of the Rachel Carson Trail in Maine, this may be the most carefully constructed and maintained nature walk on the New Hampshire seacoast. Much of this half-mile wetlands walk takes place on a sturdy level wooden boardwalk. This makes for an ideal easy stroll, accessible to wheelchair users. A free detailed booklet offers well-written interpretation of nearly a dozen numbered stops along the trail – so you can get smarter while you exercise.

The trail starts in the parking lot of the Sandy Point Discovery Center that has a nice gravel parking lot, exhibits, gift shop and restroom. Outside the discovery center you’ll see a great mockup of a gundalow that functions as a play area and a stage. There is also a small boat launch onto Great Bay maintained by NH Fish and Game.

The nice flat trail loops into the marsh area in view Great Bay and estuary. Created by the last glacier 15,000 years ago, this inland salt water body meets a number of the fresh water Piscataqua Rivers here. It is a dynamic and essential ecosystem that Seacoasters need to understand. Our survival depends on keeping this delicate system in balance. The Sandy Point Trail offers, with each walk, a chance to come to understand how this ecosystem works.

Birders will especially love the chance to view coastal warefowl, including osprey and nesting eagles. Inside the Discovery Center, a touchtank exhibit includes lobsters, horseshoe crabs, mud snails. Displays explain more about salt marsh farming, salmon migration, plankton, tides and research on the Bay. History buffs should step off the main trail to the Woodland Walk. You will find two authentic-looking birch bark Indian dwellings in a small encampment.