Monte Vista Crane Festival History
For one weekend in March, crane watchers come from far and wide to join the celebration at the Monte Vista Crane Festival.
Organized and managed by the Friends of the San Luis Valley Wildlife Refuges, thousands of bird lovers flock to Monte Vista in mid-March for the three-day festival filled with tours, lectures, live-bird exhibits, photography classes and an arts and crafts show. But the biggest draws remain the scenic San Luis Valley, hospitality of Valley residents and the tens of thousands of sandhill cranes and other unique wildlife.
The festival, now in its 44th year, offers outstanding opportunities for celebrating and understanding cranes and other wildlife, the common denominator that brings visitors back year after year is the 20,000 or so greater Sandhill Cranes and a few thousand Lesser Sandhills. Besides the cranes there are thousands of waterfowl, numerous wintering bald eagles and other raptors that highlight the wildlife viewing.
Join the Friends
The Friends of the San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuges is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the Alamosa, Baca and Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuges. The Friends promote awareness of the refuge complex through education, support for refuge projects and visitor services, and programs that connect people with wildlife and the landscape.
The Monte Vista Crane Festival is a major fundraiser for the Friends. By becoming a member, you help support the refuges, fund conservation and improvement projects throughout the year, and help keep programs like Crane Fest growing for years to come.
Where the Cranes Meet the Mountains
The Monte Vista Crane Festival grew out of a long relationship between this landscape, migrating cranes and the people who gather each spring to witness their return. Created for the festival’s 40th anniversary, Where the Cranes Meet the Mountains captures that connection through the eyes of a first-time visitor experiencing the cranes and the San Luis Valley.
About the Cranes
Each spring, thousands of Greater Sandhill Cranes stop in Colorado’s San Luis Valley as they migrate north from wintering grounds in New Mexico. The Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge provides critical roosting habitat and nearby agricultural fields offer abundant food. Their arrival is one of the Valley’s great seasonal spectacles, marked by huge flocks, distinctive calls and elaborate courtship dances.
The festival’s roots are actually tied to another species. When the event began in 1984, it was called the Whooping Crane Festival, reflecting an experimental effort to establish a Rocky Mountain population of endangered Whooping Cranes by placing their eggs in Sandhill Crane nests. The foster program ultimately did not establish a lasting population in the Valley, but it left an important mark on local conservation history—and on the festival itself. Today, the only remnant of the Whooping Crane history is a unique sculpture fashioned from farm tools standing in front of the Monte Vista Safeway named “Cooper the Whooper.”
Additional Crane Information
- Monte Vista NWR Spring Crane Viewing Guide: Learn about Sandhill Cranes, where and what time to view them during your visit.
- Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition: Fall Yampa Valley Crane Festival
- International Crane Foundation: The only place on Earth where you can see all 15 of the world’s crane species.
- Festival of the Cranes: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, New Mexico — annually in November
- Crane Trust: dedicated to the protection and maintenance of critical habitat for Whooping Cranes, Sandhill Cranes and other migratory birds along the Big Bend Region of the Platte River Valley through sound science, habitat management, community outreach, and education. The Visitor’s center is near Alda, Nebraska. Special events during March and April.
- Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Sandhill Cranes information
- Sandhill Cranes: Scientific research from the USGS
Join us in supporting the refuge & keeping our festival running strong
Donating to or joining the Friends of the San Luis Valley Refuges will help keep the Monte Vista Crane Festival returning year after year like the Sandhill Cranes!