March in the San Luis Valley brings frequent snowfall, strong winds, and the annual return of the area’s oldest visitors—Sandhill Cranes. Although cranes have been migrating through the Valley’s wetlands for centuries, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the event dedicated to showcasing the majesty of the cranes and their habitat: The Monte Vista Crane Festival.
March in the San Luis Valley brings frequent snowfall, strong winds, and the annual return of the area’s oldest visitors—Sandhill Cranes. Although cranes have been migrating through the Valley’s wetlands for centuries, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the event dedicated to showcasing the majesty of the cranes and their habitat: The Monte Vista Crane Festival.
A 40th Anniversary Keynote from ICF ICF Co-Founder to share Lessons Learned From 50 Years of Crane Conservation Big anniversaries deserve to be celebrated in style. That’s why we are very excited to announce that for our 2023 keynote speaker, we will be hosting a speaker from an organization that is also celebrating a hallmark …
A fresh new look The monte vista crane festival celebrates 40 years with a brand new logo! 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of the Monte Vista Crane Festival. Over the past four decades, we have grown from a small event, largely attended by SLV locals, to a thriving, three-day festival filled with tours, lectures, live …
Looking Back at 2022 and ahead to our 40th anniversary https://mvcranefest.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/IMG_8819.mp4 As the end of May approaches and we are starting to look forward to the end of the windy spring season and the warmer, sunny days of early summer, we thought it was a perfect time to reflect on the highlights of the 2022 …
April 5, 2022 update: The majority of the cranes have migrated north towards their nesting grounds. There might be a few still in the valley. Now we are seeing the beginning of shorebirds coming through such as Yellowlegs and Killdeer. Next will be the warblers! There was a small group of about six snow geese …
Update March 24th, 2022. There still are thousands of cranes on the Monte Vista Refuge. The best place to see them is on or near the tour loop on the refuge. They will be starting to move north in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy them while they are heere. See the PLAN YOUR VISIT …
The Monte Vista Chamber Craft Fair was held in the new Event building at Ski Hi in 2022. It was a big sucess. We are looking forward to a bigger and better event in 2023!
Thanks for a wonderful 2021 39th Annual Crane Festival. The festival was a huge success and the star of the show was thousands of Sandhill Cranes. We were treated to big shows by thousands of cranes, geese, and ducks on the Monte Vista Refute. The 40th Crane Festival will be held March 10-12. Stay tuned …
Saturday 7 am to 10 am. $7 for adults and $5 for kids. This year the Birder’s breakfast is being cooked and served by Kid’s Connection an after-school program. All proceeds will go to the Kid’s Connection program.