Willcox Playa Sandhill Crane Staging

The Sulphur Springs Valley, a wide basin between the Chiricahua, Dragoon, and Dos Cabezas mountains, has drawn people and wildlife for a very long time. This was Chiricahua Apache country, the homeland of leaders such as Cochise, whose name marks the county and the local lake, and Geronimo, whose people knew these grasslands and mountains intimately. Their descendants remain part of the Apache nations of the region today.

In the ranching era Willcox became a cattle-shipping hub on the railroad, and the wide grasslands and later the farm fields of the valley reshaped the land. Those fields, planted in grain, turned out to be a magnet for wintering cranes, which feed on the leftover grain by day. Combined with the natural roosting habitat of the playa and the managed water at Lake Cochise, the valley became one of the most reliable crane-gathering spots anywhere, a modern spectacle layered over a deep human history.

Sandhill cranes are tall, stately gray birds with a crimson crown and a rolling, bugling call that carries far across open country. Each fall they migrate south to warmer wintering grounds, and Willcox Playa is one of their major Arizona destinations, hosting many thousands through the cold months. To see and hear a gathering of this size, the birds wading, calling, and lifting off in great waves, is a genuinely moving experience.

As at other crane grounds, the best drama comes at dawn and dusk. In the early morning the cranes rise off the playa and the ponds in enormous, roaring waves to head out to the grain fields, and in the evening they stream back across the sunset to roost. Between those times the birds are scattered in the fields, but the ponds at Lake Cochise, just south of town, often hold cranes and waterfowl in easy view. Timing a visit to the edges of the day is the key to the full spectacle.

The cranes share the valley with a great variety of other birds. The ponds at Lake Cochise draw ducks and geese, wading birds, and shorebirds, while the open flats and grasslands attract raptors, including northern harriers, hawks, and wintering eagles, along with meadowlarks, sparrows, and pipits. Birders come to Willcox for a long list of species that can turn up in the mix of water, grassland, and desert habitats.

The setting has become a destination in its own right. Willcox has grown into a small high-desert wine region, its vineyards taking advantage of the elevation and the valley's warm days and cool nights, so a birding trip can be paired with a stop at a local tasting room. The town celebrates its crane visitors with a winter festival, and the wide valley light, especially at the golden hours when the birds are moving, is a photographer's delight.

The crane season runs from fall through early spring, with numbers building through the winter. This is the time to visit for the great gathering, ideally at dawn for the liftoff or in the late afternoon for the return. Winter days in the valley are cool and often clear, ideal for a morning at the ponds with binoculars and a warm jacket.

By spring the cranes head north again, and summer on the playa is hot, dry, and largely craneless, the lakebed baking pale under the sun until the monsoon storms briefly flood it. The vineyards and resident birds carry on year-round, but for most visitors the reason to come is the winter crane spectacle. Paired with the nearby wetland at Whitewater Draw and the pinnacles of the Chiricahuas, Willcox makes a fine base for a winter wildlife trip in southeastern Arizona.

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