Epic crane migration a day's drive away

Travelers often list the Great Migration on their bucket list, referring to mammals across the plains of Africa. Seeing that requires lots of flying and buckets of cash. But there's another Great Migration, just a day's drive from Chicago.

It's the migration of the sandhill cranes across the plains of Nebraska. These majestic, ancient birds do the flying, so you don't have to. A half million of them start arriving in late February and continue coming through early April. Think Valentine's Day to Tax Day.

Fossils indicate the cranes have chosen central Nebraska's Platte River valley for millions of years. They use the area to rest and load up on calories between winter habitats in northern Mexico, Texas and New Mexico and summer breeding grounds in Canada, Alaska and Siberia. Nebraska's Platte River attracts 500,000 cranes - 80 percent of the world's sandhill population.

Your trip from Chicago calls for nine hours' drive time to Grand Island or 10 to Kearney. These two cities are the best launching points to find sanctuaries, viewing blinds and nature centers that provide meaningful ways to experience this migration fully.

Even primatologist Jane Goodall goes there, knowing this to be one of the world's top 10 animal migration spectacles. You know her best for her work with chimpanzees, but she considers these cranes proof of resilience, hope and a call to action to protect flyways and to nourish resting grounds.

Here are some tips to guide the family experience that Goodall calls such a "magnificent display."

• Wake up early and also plan early dinners because the crane action is most abundant when they arise and then again as dusk settles. Dinner after the birds are in bed might not work well for families with kids.

• Book a hotel in the towns of Kearney and Grand Island so you can view both approaches to this extraordinary opportunity.

• Resist thinking you can just pull off on the side of the road to watch because that's bad for the birds and shortchanges your family's options.

Focus on Rowe Sanctuary, operated by the National Audubon Society, and Crane Trust, a non-profit dedicated to preserving the critical habitat along the stretch of the Platte River known as the Big Bend region. Both provide knowledgeable staff and volunteers, thrilled to share abundant information about the migrations.

Both also have viewing blinds to watch the birds awaken at dawn. Consider returning to the blind before dusk so you do not startle them with your presence.

That means keeping quiet too, so if the kids are under age 12, there are two other spots better suited for families watching fowl:

• Rowe Sanctuary in Gibbon, near Kearney, Exit 285 from I-80. Rowe has a glass viewing room for watching the cranes' dawn awakening, or their dusk return. A web cam gives close-up views as well. Handy info pages for coloring or reading short facts are provided too with simple activities to try later.

• Crane Trust in Wood River near Grand Island at Exit 305 toward Ada. Crane Trust has a marvelous art gallery with the Spirit of the Cranes exhibition, including children's drawings and paintings, so allowing an hour to engage with the displays is a good way to enjoy the flyway too.

Viewing outside the bird blinds

Two-and-a-half quiet hours in the blind isn't long enough for those engaged in the wonders of the crane dances, songs and flight patterns but could be way too much for tweens and teens. Once inside, no leaving is allowed.

Consider these options instead:

• Families could experience the sandhill cranes from a bridge in the Fort Kearney Recreation Area, still arriving at least 30 minutes before sunrise or being in place from sunset to dark. State park permits are required for the vehicle $5 daily. Plan to walk 300 yards to the bridge and if you stay into the day, the 1.8-mile trail offers other wildlife viewing possibilities.

• The Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center offers a $15 per person option on their viewing bridge - two hours and a 360-degree look-every-which-way experience. You can walk away any time, but can't return.

Sandhill cranes, museum-style

Getting up close to a John James Audubon double elephant folio of a majestic crane painted in 1835 is possible too - at the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney.

This is a middle-of-the-day place between the bird viewings to enjoy Nebraska art and artists from historic scenes by Alfred Bierstadt when he camped at Fort Kearney with a wagon train to modern sculptors, painters and poets.

Cranes appear as mosaics in the rotunda of The Plainsman Museum in Aurora where western family life at the end of the 19th century is the focus. Actually go inside a sod house and touch the walls.

Make The Archway an intentional stop, too, not so much for the flyway experiences as to better understand western migrations.

Spanning I-80, this 1,500-ton structure is filled with professional, engaging exhibitions. Take Exit 275 and you'll be there in a minute.

The 28-foot escalator to the top is more than drama; the long ride lets you leave your normal world behind and enter a community of pioneers heading West.

Fifteen compelling vignettes immerse visitors into 150 years of Western frontier travel along the Grand Platte River.

I anticipated gimmicks but found dynamic excellence bringing new clarity to my understanding of "heading West."

You know how a song sticks with you, lurking in your brain? The voices of the sandhill cranes do too. You can listen to them on them on webcams and websites but in person the music is a sound to retain forever.

Reservations, additional info

Plenty of people realize the exceptional joy in watching this migration so reservations for a spot in the blind is a must.

• Christine Tibbetts is an award-winning travel writer who serves as Destinations Editor for TravelingMom.com, an award-winning family travel website.

If you go

<b>Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary</b>(308) 468-5282, <a href="http://www.rowesanctuary.org">www.rowesanctuary.org</a>

$25 per person

<b>Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center</b>(308) 384-4633, <a href="http://www.seethecranes.com">www.seethecranes.com</a>

$25 per person