The Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point State Park: A Great Place for Adults and Children to Visit in New Hampshire

On Memorial Day week-end, I decided to take my family to the Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point State Park. I had reviewed the website ( www.seacoastsciencecenter.org ), but still didn't know quite what to expect. We were amazed at the wide range of activities, the beautiful natural landscapes, and the opportunities to learn about life from a bygone era.

When we first drove up, we passed the Odiorne Point boat launch. This is a small boat ramp for free public use. It's a great place to put in your boat for a day of fishing in the Gulf of Maine. In late May, the Striped Bass are running and these aggressive fish make great sport for the whole family. They travel in schools and once you find them, you can pull in fish after fish, commonly 10-20 pounds each. And this is even before we get to the State Park Entrance!

Another mile or so down Ocean Boulevard in Rye, NH, we came to the park entrance on the left. A couple of small fields used for overflow parking, a small building where a park ranger collects the modest $4 per person entry fee, and a small paved parking lot surrounded by trees were the first things we saw as we pulled into the park. As we headed for the parking lot, we passed a huge concrete bunker with a sampling of five foot tall artillery shells arrayed around the massive iron door. This, of course, caught my teenage son's eye immediately.

We decided to head to the Science Center Building first, and then spend the rest of the day exploring the park. The Seacoast Science Center is a fairly small sized building located inside the park. It has a separate admission fee of $4 per person. Right inside the door and to the right is a wonderful Tide Pool Touch Tank with an assortment of local marine life within easy reach. Kids (and adults for that matter) are encouraged to reach in and touch the animals in the pool. Sea urchins, a variety of starfish, hermit crabs, and more offer enough to keep the inquisitive mind entertained for a long time. Visitors are instructed to rinse their hands before and after reaching into the pool and to make sure to keep the live creatures below the surface of the water in order to keep them healthy and comfortable.

Nearby is the Exploring the Gulf of Maine Exhibit Hall. This area features a number of large aquarium tanks with some of the larger members of the local marine community. Be sure to check out the size of the teeth on the Wolf Fish! Among the other tanks here is one that features a number of tropical specimens that were actually caught in the Gulf of Maine. Many of these warm-water species are carried North when warm eddy currents spin away from the tropical regions almost like underwater hurricanes. Often these eddy currents will stay intact as they travel as far as New England or even beyond carrying with them water-ever tropical creatures happen to get trapped in them. In this case, The Seacoast Science Center has a Trigger Fish, a Bicolored Damsel, and several other tropicals that one would never expect to find in the cold local waters. Each exhibit here has lots of information in addition to the living displays to help the visitor understand how each species fits into the local ecology.

The center also has rich displays about the maritime industry with information and exhibits about aquaculture, commercial fishing, ocean freighters, and even a slice of the hull of an old ship that was destroyed in a storm just off the coast. A plaque tells of the daring rescue of six of the ship's seven crew members, and remembers the unfortunate one who lost his life as the ship sank.

One of my favorite displays in the Seacoast Science Center is the wealth of information and artifacts from the original colonists who lived there. Odiorne Point was first settled in 1623, just three short years after the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. Fewer than a dozen colonists set up their homestead at Odiorne and built a small fort to protect themselves from the Native Americans already living in the area. A number of household items from the original settlement are on display here along with photos of some of the descendants of these original colonists and others who later lived at the old homestead site. Just outside the Center is a collection of colonial-style gardens. The kitchen garden contains spices and medicinal herbs that would have been used by the colonists. The separate bee and butterfly garden overflows with perennial flowers just as it did in early colonial days.

We picked up a free trail map and headed outside. The bunker we saw when we drove in was our first stop. Stairs lead to the top and the placements which housed the pair of six inch guns are visible on the top of the bunker. The seacoast fortifications at Odiorne Point State Park date back to World War II. The scale of the bunkers helps us imagine how the country must have feared enemy attacks to our important ports. The gun placements command sweeping views of the ocean and some of them had a range of up to 26 miles. The massive concrete structures where covered with dirt and planted with trees and brush to look like natural hills to any approaching enemy vessel until it was too late to avoid their powerful punch.

The rest of the park contains miles of hiking trails and rocky coastline. We clambered over the rocks investigating the plentiful tide pools and discovering all the seashells on the shore. We brought with us an Eastern US flowers field guide and identified a number of the beautiful flowers we found throughout the park. The trails wander through seven distinct types of habitat from salt marsh to forest to sandy beach and more. The wide, well manicured trails are great for walking, biking and most of them are easily wheelchair accessible.

The oceanfront part of the park contains a good-sized sandy beach in a little cove protected from the waves by a long stone sea wall. The water here is as clear as the sky and great for a refreshing dip. The rocky shoreline had lots of great spots for fishing and we saw many people taking advantage of them while we were there. Eider ducks rode the waves just off shore as well.

After we had finally seen all we could see, we headed back to the parking lot stopping on the way to watch and listen to a bright red cardinal singing in the trees. The Seacoast Science Center and Odiorne Point State Park visit kept the whole family interested and entertained for hours. We learned a lot about an amazing variety of subjects and most importantly, we all had fun. This inexpensive attraction offers something for everyone and is a great diversion from the usual seacoast tourist attractions. I highly recommend a visit here whether you're just visiting New Hampshire or have lived here all your life.