conserving rocky mountain greater sandhill cranes + their habitat through science + education

The Greater Sandhill Crane is an iconic species of the Yampa Valley in Northwest Colorado. Returning in the spring from wintering grounds in New Mexico and Arizona, cranes nest and raise their young in wetland areas throughout the valley.

LATEST NEWS >

2026 Crane-Inspired Creative Arts Scholarship Contest is open:

The Crane-inspired Creative Arts Scholarship Contest (CASC) is open to all high school seniors in Routt and Moffat Counties. This annual contest supports local high school students in pursuit of higher education through creative engagement with the arts while raising awareness of Greater Sandhill Cranes in the Yampa Valley.

A total of $10,000 in scholarship funds will be awarded across 3 categories of art. The deadline for submission is February 9, 2026. Visit our CASC webpage for complete rules and information.

Save The Date: Crane Migration Celebration March 13th, 2026

Join us for a lively evening of events to celebrate the cranes’ return to Northwest Colorado and to help raise funds during CCCC’s only fundraising event of the year.

  • Friday, March 13, 2026 from 5:30 – 8 pm at the Depot Art Center in Steamboat Springs, CO
  • Tickets go on sale in mid-January
  • Online Silent Auction opens on March 1st!

Thank you to the Yampa Valley Community Foundation for awarding CCCC a generous grant in the 2025-26 Community Grant Cycle. These funds enable CCCC to continue work on behalf of Sandhill Cranes in the Yampa Valley community. The Yampa Valley Community Foundation works to support local nonprofits with resources and collaborations to build vibrant communities. We are deeply grateful for their work and continued support.

YAMPA VALLEY CRANE FESTIVAL

Save the date for the 15th annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival on September 3 – 6, 2026. Learn more about all that the festival has to offer:

View Crane Nest Camera highlights:

Our appreciation for the crane grows with the slow unraveling of earthly history. His tribe, we now know, stems out of the remote Eocene. The other members of the fauna in which he originated are long since entombed within the hills. When we hear his call we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.

– Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac