Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

The refuge sits at a meeting point of major migratory routes, which is why so many birds funnel through. The freshwater of the Bear River mixing with the brine of the Great Salt Lake creates an extraordinarily productive marsh, thick with the insects, brine shrimp, and plants that migrating birds depend on to refuel. For many species crossing the arid West, this is one of the few great oases along the way.

The numbers can be astonishing, with hundreds of thousands of birds present at the height of spring and fall migration, and dozens of species using the refuge over the course of a year. It draws not only ducks and geese but tundra swans, white-faced ibis, American avocets, black-necked stilts, phalaropes, and great flocks of American white pelicans that nest on nearby lake islands and feed in the marsh.

The centerpiece for most visitors is the twelve-mile auto tour route, a loop of dikes that carries you out among the ponds and channels. Driving slowly, with the car serving as a rolling blind, lets you approach birds far more closely than you could on foot, and pull-offs invite you to stop, scan the water, and listen to the marsh.

The wetlands change constantly with the seasons and the water. In spring and summer the marsh is green and loud with nesting birds; in fall it fills with staging flocks; and in winter, open water draws eagles and other raptors hunting the flats. Sunrise and sunset over the water, with the mountains reflected in the ponds, are the quiet highlights of any visit.

The refuge has weathered dramatic change. Established in the late 1920s, it was nearly wiped out in the mid-1980s when record high water on the Great Salt Lake flooded the marsh, drowned the dikes, and destroyed the infrastructure, leaving the refuge a saltwater bay for years. When the lake receded, the wetlands were painstakingly rebuilt.

The education center near Brigham City tells this story of loss and recovery, along with the natural history of the Bear River, the longest river in North America that never reaches the sea, ending instead in the Great Salt Lake. Exhibits there help visitors read the marsh and understand the flyway before heading out onto the auto tour.

Spring brings the surge of northbound migrants and the start of nesting, filling the marsh with courtship and song, and it is one of the two peak birding seasons. Summer settles into the nesting rhythm, with young birds on the water and long, warm evenings, though biting insects are at their worst.

Fall is the other great season, as huge flocks stage and stack up on their way south, sometimes clouding the sky. Winter empties much of the marsh but concentrates raptors, including bald eagles, hunting over the ice and open leads. Whatever the season, the refuge rewards a slow, patient visit with binoculars in hand.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.