From NH-108 in Durham, turn east onto Durham Point Road and drive 6.3 miles. The preserve parking lot is on the right. From NH-108 in Newmarket, turn east onto Bay Road and drive 1.4 miles. The preserve parking lot is on the left.

This nearly 400-acre preserve features a unique salt marsh and a rich upland forest community, providing habitat for deer, wild turkey, and fish.

Spring and summer birding. Warblers, vireos, and other passerines on the trails behind the parking lot. On the trail to the marshes at the shore of Great Bay, there is an Osprey nest platform. Waterfowl and gulls on Great Bay, though a scope is needed.

It is easy to leave behind the feel of civilization in the Lubberland Creek Preserve in Newmarket. The nickname of Great Bay’s northern shore as early as 1669, “lubberland” is thought to have been a term used by sailors to describe the “land-loving” farmers along the shoreline.

Today, much of the landscape has changed from farms to forests, and the Lubberland Creek Preserve is a remarkable natural area where visitors can see a mosaic of estuarine, grassland, forest, and freshwater wetland habitats, as well as relics of its agricultural past.

The preserve’s trails explore a mix of streams, swampy wetlands, grasslands, and dry forested uplands pocked with vernal pools. Rare Blanding’s turtles and spotted salamanders use the vernal pools while the wetlands support beaver, osprey, and great blue herons. The preserve also contains one of the largest salt marshes in the Great Bay Estuary providing visitors with great birding opportunities and expansive views of Great Bay.

The Sweet Trail brochure and map has hikes on several trails in the Luberland Creek area.