Cibola National Wildlife Refuge..............

Cibola National Wildlife Refuge in Cibola, Arizona, is actually in Arizona AND California.  For more information, click here. It is a wildlife refuge set up to mitigate the changes to the Colorado River (channels and dams), and provides a key habitat for migratory birds, as well as resident species. This is a birder's paradise to visit. Lucky for us, this refuge was only about 20 minutes from our campground (Ehrenberg, AZ). The drive is quite remote and the refuge seems to be in the middle of nowhere.

Cibola, Az

Visitor Center

We are not birders, but we do like watching for wildlife. After talking with the ranger in the Visitor Center, we decided to drive the Goose Loop Trail, a paved 3-mile road through the park. You cannot get out of your car during this drive, so as not to disturb the wildlife. The first area of interest was the Long Pond, where thousands of ducks were "wintering".

a 3-mile loop road

ducks!!

all kinds

when one takes off, a whole bunch follow!

up up and away

an awesome sight (and sound!)

a lonely bird hanging out

cute

so many different types of ducks too

pretty

love the markings on these

i think they are a couple

wow!

looking up

we headed on down the road to the nature walk area

a picture!

another scenic shot

There is a 1-mile nature trail, very nicely set up with benches throughout so you could sit and be still and just observe. Perfect for birders! We aren't birders, so we headed to the blind to see what we could see. There were plenty of ducks at the Loafing Pond, and even though we were really quiet, they still knew we were there and swam away.

this is the only area we could get out of the car....the 1-mile nature trail

watch out for bobcats!

again...a birder's delight

I want to see a bobcat! (from a distance of course)

heading to the blind

they still knew we were there

floating away.....

a lovely spot for these guys

The walk on the nature trail was peaceful and cool. We were really quiet, so as not to disturb any wildlife. Usually, we are chatting away and making noise so we don't run into bears. Hahah.

tree fungus

close up

isn't this a nice pic of Tom?

Back in the car, we continued on and drove around the huge alfalfa and corn fields, where thousands of migrating cranes winter. There were also burrowing owls in pipes set up near rocks. We figured since these were so close to the road,we would never see any owls because they would hear us coming.

burrowing owls here (we didn't see any here)

thousands of cranes under the trees and in the fields

close up

a few cranes flying

isn't that cool? (we love this stuff!)

another close up of the cranes under the trees

there were thousands of these 

more

more

more

the guy ahead of us was driving way too fast and left us in the dust

the views are really nice too....and this is active farmland as well, within the wildlife refuge

do you see him?

helloooooo

another view

many of the areas were closed for the wildlife

driving around the field...look at all those cranes

oop-looking for more burrowing owls

he's looking at us!

his head spins all the way around(pretty much)

gorgeous scenery 

There are other areas in Cibola Wildlife Refuge to explore, but we did not come prepared to explore all day. We should have packed a lunch! The wildlife refuge was pretty big (18,000 acres), and you could spend a long time sitting and watching. We are also not a fan of dirt roads, though the ranger said the roads were passable no problem, but they were rough. We do not have a high clearance vehicle, so we tend to stay away from roads like that. So, after several hours, we headed back to the campground....kicking ourselves that we didn't pack more water and lunch so we could explore the other areas of the refuge.

driving over the Colorado River

heading back to the campground