Soar with cranes! Soar with planes! Visit Steamboat Springs and the beautiful Yampa Valley in Northwest Colorado for the 7th annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival and the Wild West Air Fest taking place on Labor Day weekend, August 30 – September 2, 2018.  View hundreds of Greater Sandhill Cranes as they eat, dance and socialize on their fall staging area. The crane festival features guided crane viewings, nature and bird walks, expert speakers, films, crane and bird art, workshops, children’s activities, live raptors presented by HawkQuest, ranch tours, a community barbecue at The Nature Conservancy’s Carpenter Ranch, and more. Festival speakers include Paul Tebbel, crane expert and former director of Nebraska’s Audubon Rowe Sanctuary; Jennifer Ackerman, author of the N.Y. Times best-selling book, The Genius of Birds; Pam Liu on “Cranes in Chinese Culture;” and keynote speaker, Anne Lacy, research coordinator for the International Crane Foundation. The Wild West Air Fest features nationally renowned performers providing edge of the seat excitement as they undertake thrilling aerobatics and formation flying. Please visit www.coloradocranes.org for a complete festival schedule.