Day 13: 'Thousands of Sandhill Cranes'

 

I had read that thousands of Sandhill Cranes wintered in McNeil, AZ in an area called Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area.  Each morning at dawn, they leave in search of food and return in the late morning, usually before noon.  Apparently it is quite a spectacle and something we had to see.  So we headed over to the area about 9am and since it was only 30 miles away, yeah, we were just a tad early.  We walked, we sat, we waited, we walked some more.  11am came and went and still no cranes in sight. 





It was incredibly windy as the noon hour approached and finally we could see swarms of black dots on the horizon, getting bigger every minute.  Due to the wind, the cranes started flying higher and higher in the sky as they were trying to make their way back to their wintering grounds and we watching them make funnel patterns in the sky as they buffeted the wind came in for landing.  

It was such an amazing sight to see thousands upon thousands of cranes coming back from their morning feeding excursion and land in the marshlands and ponds, right next to a flock of Snow Geese and lots of ducks like Northern Shovelers and Pintails.  It’s definitely something we are going to remember for a long time to come.




Once we got back to the RV, it was time to head to Pantagonia Lake State Park where we had reservations for 2 nights.  Our friends also had reservations and we were lucky enough to get a spot right across from them, even though the entire park was sold out.  

Once we got all situated in our spot, we realized that our exact same model of RV travel trailer was parked right next to us!  Turns out they were from Astoria and were full-time RVers for the past 4 years, and were moving to Redmond, OR in the next few months.  (It isn’t a surprise to find owners of our model of RV living in the Pacific Northwest as that is where they are made – in LaGrande.)  

Rick started talking to the man about a power issue he was having and I started asking his wife a ton of questions about everything from where she stored her spices to how they manage their power levels while boondocking.  They invited us to see inside their RV and I’m still shocked that it was our exact layout, which really isn’t that common of a layout at all.  We got numerous helpful tips.  (I did offer to show them the inside of our RV but when they heard that Beamer was occupying a large corner in the main room, they politely declined a tour.) LOL






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