Greenland borders Great Bay to the northwest. When deciding where to go, it is worth considering landscapes, nature interpretation, and local history as distinct areas of focus. This can help you decide whether to connect your stay more with habitats, the Great Bay theme, or historical points of interest.

Great Bay: Exhibits and a Discovery Tank

The Great Bay Discovery Center serves as the education headquarters and interpretive center for the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Its visitor center features exhibits about Great Bay, plankton, tides, and research on the bay. If you are interested in Great Bay as a nature and research topic, you will find a dedicated area of focus here alongside the landscapes of the Greenland Campus.

At the Discovery Tank, children can touch animals from the estuary, including horseshoe crabs, oysters, and mud snails. Alongside the exhibits, this offers a hands-on activity for children: direct contact with the animals. For planning a trip with children, this is a clear distinction from the visitor center’s more subject-focused approach.

Landscapes on the Greenland Campus

The Greenland Campus covers 50 acres. Its landscape includes mixed forest with higher-elevation woodland, freshwater wetlands, and extensive salt marshes. This variety makes the campus a distinct nature-focused option if you are especially interested in habitats when deciding where to go. The campus also includes a dock, several trails, and a boat launch. These features complement the landscape types with specific elements of the grounds.

One distinction is important when planning your trip: the campus represents the landscape itself, while the Great Bay Discovery Center interprets nature and research through exhibits. This can help you decide whether to focus more on different habitats or on learning about Great Bay as a topic.

Great Bay History and Weeks House

A replica of a 19th-century gundalow is located on the Great Bay Discovery Campus. The lower level of the Hugh Gregg Coastal Conservation Center features a special exhibit on the history of hunting, fishing, and trapping at Great Bay. The two historical approaches differ: the replica is a specific object, while the exhibit covers several activities in their historical context.

Weeks House in Greenland was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. This permanent heritage designation is a different historical point of interest from the exhibit at the Hugh Gregg Coastal Conservation Center: it applies to a specific house, while the exhibit covers activities at Great Bay.

When choosing a focus, you can distinguish nature as landscape from nature as a topic: habitats are at the heart of the campus, while the Discovery Center interprets nature and research through exhibits. The Discovery Tank adds a hands-on activity for children to this perspective. This can help you decide whether to include different types of landscape, interpretation of Great Bay topics, or historical points of interest in your stay.

Discover more destinations: Hampton Falls, Northwood, Londonderry, Exeter, Rye, Candia, Portsmouth, Hampton

For the broader travel overview: Rockingham.