The 14th annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival will be held on August in Steamboat Springs, Hayden, and Craig, Colorado.

Join us for guided crane viewings, bird walks, expert speakers, live raptors, films, family activities, and more. Speakers include:

- Keynote speaker Dr. George Archibald, International Crane Foundation Co-Founder and Senior Conservationist
- Dr. Dan Collins, USFWS Rocky Mountain Sandhill Crane Expert
- Sue Riffe, Owner-Guide for She Flew Birding Tours and Bird Song Expert
- Paul Tebbel, Crane Expert
- Rebecca Weiss, author of Birds of Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley, Aspen-based birding guide and naturalist
- Ted Floyd, editor of Birding magazine 
- Meg Karschner, CCCC Executive Director 
- Nature's Educators showcases live raptors up close during a special presentation

Schedule of Events:

5:45 - 8:45 a.m. - Guided Sunrise Crane Viewing
Stockbridge Transit Center 
Shuttle will transport you to two locations where you can get off the shuttles to view the cranes flying overhead and feeding in agricultural fields. Paul Tebbel will address your questions and provide pertinent information about Sandhill Cranes and their behavior to enhance your crane viewing experience. The shuttles depart and return to Stockbridge Transit Center. Please bring binoculars and dress for weather. Click here for directions. 
-Advance registration and fee required.  $27-adult; $17-kids, 17 and under

6:45 - 10:30 a.m. - Marabou Ranch Bird Outing 
Led by Sue Riffe, birding guide and expert on bird song.
Enjoy birding throughout Marabou, a unique private ranch preservation community and working cattle and hay ranch. This trip involves both walking and shuttle transportation around the Marabou property. 
-Advanced registration and $37 fee required.

8 - 10 a.m. - Loudy-Simpson Guided Bird Walk 
Led by Forrest Luke and Alan Reishus
Bird walk at Northwest Colorado's best migrant trap, Loudy-Simpson Park in Craig. Click here for details.
-Advanced registration and $21 fee required.

8:30 - 10:30 a.m. - Yampa Preserve Guided Bird Walk 
Led by Ted Floyd, editor of Birding magazine, and Rebecca Weiss, naturalist and author of Birds of Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley. Bird at this property owned by The Nature Conservancy that harbors one of the largest remaining examples of a rare riparian forest type dominated by narrowleaf cottonwood, box elder maple, and red-osier dogwood. 
-Advance registration and $26 fee required.

9 - 10 a.m. - "Meet and Greet" with Festival Speakers
Inclusions Bakery & Dessert Bar - 1125 Lincoln Ave, Unit 100,  Steamboat Springs, CO
Join our festival speakers, George Archibald and Dan Collins, as well as other festival personnel, for an informal, Dutch treat coffee hour. Here is your chance to chat with experts in their respective fields.
No registration required.

10 - 11 a.m. - Crane Yoga 
Led by Liz Leipold - Library Lawn at Bud Werner Memorial Library 
Join yoga instructor Liz Leipold for a gentle yoga sequence about the life of the cranes, from calling, meeting, dancing, hatching, and growing up. Bring your own mat-towel. All ages welcome. Free, no registration required.

10:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm: Nature's Educators Live Raptor Booth
Library Lawn near Children's Library
Visit with live raptors on the Library Lawn. Learn about raptors and the physical and behavioral adaptations they have that help them survive in their environment. Meet some real raptors and learn their personal stories and amazing features. All ages are welcome for this FREE event. Learn more about Nature's Educators.

11:30 a.m. -12:30 pm: Film - "Dances with Cranes"
Library Hall at Bud Werner Memorial Library
Dances With Cranes follows the remarkable recovery story of whooping cranes, and the extraordinary lengths passionate scientists will go to save them - from performing a mating dance with a human-imprinted crane in captivity, to jumping out of a helicopter to study juvenile cranes in the wild.
Over the course of a year in the life of three whooping crane chicks, host Sarika-Cullis Suzuki finds out what it takes to bring a species back from the brink of extinction - from the early days when they seemed doomed to disappear, to the new challenges whooping cranes face thanks to climate change.

11:30 a.m. -1:30 pm: Bag Lunch and iNaturalist Workshop
Carpenter Ranch
Led by Jeremiah Psiropoulos, professional wildlife biologist and owner of Antigone Wildlife Tours.
Participants will learn how to use iNaturalist and Seek by iNat app while learning about insects, butterflies, reptiles, amphibians, and birds at the historic Carpenter Ranch near Hayden, Colorado. This event is suitable for people of all ages, including families and children; no experience necessary. Bring your lunch and your smartphones and we'll show you how to learn about nature with technology! Carpenter Ranch is known as a birdwatcher's paradise (over 150 species on the ranch bird list) located along the Yampa River 20 miles west of Steamboat Springs. The ranch also offers a remarkably diverse variety of insects. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) acquired the ranch in 1996 as the centerpiece of its broader effort to conserve the natural and agricultural heritage of the Yampa River Valley. Today, the Conservancy manages this historic, biologically significant property as a working cattle ranch to explore ways to simultaneously pursue agricultural production and the conservation of streamside and wetland habitats.

-Advanced registration and $21 fee required.

1:30 - 2:30 pm: "Talon Talk" 
By Nature's Educators - Library Hall at Bud Werner Memorial Library
Enjoy an all ages presentation with live birds of prey from Colorado and beyond during this FREE event.

All Day - Educational Crane Displays 
Outside Library Hall at the Bud Werner Memorial Library