Festival registration is live!

Photo: Kathy Simpson

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 >

Nest Camera Update:

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to our Nest Camera Campaign – we are so close to reaching our fundraising goal!

After a severe wind event destroyed CCCC’s nest camera system near the end of the spring nesting season, generous donor support allowed us to replace the equipment. Special thanks to Yampa Valley Electric Association for donating a utility pole for the camera and to Elevated Line Works in Craig, CO for providing professional installation services. The new camera is currently being programmed, and installation will soon be complete. 

Visit us during the Yampa Valley Crane Festival to learn more about this eventful nest camera season and more:

  • Through the Lens: Insights into the Lives of Sandhill Cranes through the Nest Camera
  • Saturday, Sept. 5 from 12:00 PM – 12:45 PM
  • Library Hall, Bud Werner Memorial Library

Want to learn more or watch past coverage? Visit our Nest Camera webpage or catch recorded livestreams and highlights on the Colorado Cranes YouTube channel.

Crane Yard Art is Back!

Back by popular demand, a limited selection of handcrafted Crane Yard Art and a unique crane-themed painted gourd—all created by talented local artists—are heading to auction. Don’t miss your chance to take home these one-of-a-kind pieces while supporting CCCC’s mission.

Online Silent Auction:

  • Starts: Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 7:00 AM

  • Ends: Sunday, Sept. 6 at 12:00 PM

You can view artwork, learn about the artists, and place your bids here.

Our sincere gratitude to CCCC volunteer extraordinaire Paul Williams, for building our birds, and to our local artists for contributing their talents to this event: Cheryl Anderson, Debra Arnold, Valerie Bush, Zane Haight, Susan Gill Jackson, and Glenna Olmsted. 

Crane Contest Updates:

Judging for the Crane Coloring and Photo Contests is officially complete, and all winners have been notified! Thank you to everyone who submitted their art, and to our generous sponsors: Wild Goose Coffee at the Granary, Element Print & Design, and PhotoGraphicsArt. 

Join us as we celebrate our talented participants:

  • Coloring Contest Awards Ceremony: Tuesday, Sept. 1 at Crane Fest Kids’ Night (Library Hall, Bud Werner Memorial Library). The event includes fun activities for families and runs from 5:00–7:00 PM, with crane storytelling and the awards presentation starting at 5:30 PM.

  • Photo Contest Awards Presentation: Saturday, Sept. 5 at 1:15 PM in Library Hall at Bud Werner Memorial Library (held prior to the Yampa Valley Crane Festival keynote presentation).

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