Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition

Presenters of the Yampa Valley Crane Festival

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The Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition (CCCC) is dedicated to the conservation and protection of Sandhill Cranes in Colorado.

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. At summer’s end during the peak of their stopover in the Yampa Valley, we present our annual crane festival. The purpose of the Yampa Valley Crane Festival is to educate the public about these ancient birds and to celebrate their presence in Northwest Colorado.

Aldo Leopold, the famous conservationist, wrote in a Sand County Almanac, “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.” Once you have heard the call of a crane, you will remember it forever.

In 2021, Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition, Inc. (CCCC) celebrates its 10th year of protecting Greater Sandhill Cranes and their habitat in the Yampa Valley. Our 10th annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival will take place September 2-5, 2021 in Steamboat Springs and Hayden, Colorado. Complete festival details will be posted on our website in early summer. We hope you can join us!

To learn more about our other programs, please explore the rest of this website.

CCCC is now a participant in the CO Gives/Yampa Valley Gives Day.

Latest News

March 1, 2021


March 1-8 has been proclaimed Greater Sandhill Crane Week in the Yampa Valley. (Read the full proclamation). Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition, Inc. (CCCC) is pleased to announce a number of exciting crane-related activities to honor our returning cranes.


First Crane Sighting Contest (starts now and runs through March). First Sighting Contest Rules.

CCCC/Yampa Valley Crane Festival Photo Contest (runs Sept. 1, 2020 – Aug. 15, 2021). Photo Contest Rules.

Crane Creative Arts Scholarship Contest for high school seniors (deadline March 25, 2021). Scholarship Contest Rules.

Crane Coloring Contest (starts now through August 15). Coloring Contest Rules and Picture.


The 10th annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival is scheduled for September 2-5, 2021. Click here to see the exciting lineup of speakers planned for this special celebration.


Reminder: You can support the CCCC year-round by shopping at smile.amazon.com and specifying Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition, Inc. as your charitable organization of choice. Amazon will automatically donate 0.5% of eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the CCCC at no cost to you. It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?

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