G o to Willcox Playa Wildlife Area, they said. You’ll see plenty of sandhill cranes. Sandhill cranes? We get those in Florida , we replied.
Ah, not like this, they insisted. And they were right. The region in southeast Arizona is home to the annual migration of sandhill cranes, and the sight of thousands of these majestic birds arriving at sunset over the Playa’s marshland was akin to being in the middle of a David Attenborough documentary.
Like the massed formations of World War II bombers – but distinctly less hostile – the cranes floated in from the setting sun on a perfect Arizona evening to join thousands of their brethren seeking winter warmth. We’d seen some amazing birdlife on the first six months of our epic ‘Year On The Road’ RV adventure, but nothing to match the awe-inspiring splendour of this extraordinary vista of migratory avians, a symphony of winged elegance with an intense burnt orange backdrop. Read more on USA travel : Willcox was our final stop in Arizona, and it also produced one of our most cosy campgrounds, the Willcox/Cochise KOA Holiday campground, complete with porch swing and outdoor grill, as well as a swimming pool and country restaurant that delivered tasty pizza and pasta direct to our RV.
We arrived via a month’s tour of the southern half of the state, with lengthy stops in Mesa and Tucson thanks to the free one-year Thousand Trails membership that came with the purchase of our second-hand Winnebago Sightseer. Thousand Trails a.