Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge contains some 19,400 acres of a 22,000-acre marsh/grassland in a high mountain valley about 27 miles north of Soda Springs off Route 34 in southeastern Idaho. This place attracts lots of sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans, Canada geese and various species of ducks. This is an almost pristine wetland mix of mudflats, shallow water, bulrush marshes and wet meadows that provides habitat for more than 200 species of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and fish.

You'll find the largest nesting population of greater sandhill cranes at Grays Lake NWR in the summer nesting season. You'll also find large colonies of Franklin's gulls intermixed with white-faced ibis in the bulrush marshes. There might even be some grebes, rails and bitterns in the bulrushes with the snipes, curlews, willets and phalaropes hanging out along the shore edges.

For big animals there's mule deer, elk and moose, plus badgers, muskrats and ground squirrels. There's sharp-tailed and ruffed grouse and many species of songbirds. The local raptors include eagles, hawks, owls and falcons.

The refuge headquarters building houses some indoor exhibits. The refuge office is open daily from April 1 through November 15 but may be closed if personnel are in the field. Hunting is permitted in certain designated areas in season, hunting for coots, geese, ducks and mergansers...