Ash Creek Wildlife Area
Bieber / Adin (Big Valley) · near Bieber · Shasta Cascade
Wildlife Watching
At a glance
- Best season
- Spring through early summer for nesting cranes; fall for waterfowl
- Open year round
- No
What is here
- Wildlife
- birds
- Species
- Nesting greater sandhill cranes (state-threatened), waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors
- Amenities
- Wildlife-area roads & levees · Undeveloped, quiet · Wet-meadow & marsh birding
- Best for
- Patient viewing of state-threatened nesting sandhill cranes
- Features
- Important sandhill crane nesting area · Undeveloped and uncrowded · Big Valley wet meadows · For patient birders
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Rough/muddy roads, minimal facilities · Seasonal nesting & hunt-season closures · Give nesting cranes a wide berth
- Good for a first timer
- No
Wildlife Watching detail
- Viewing
- drive
- Effort
- moderate
- Habitat
- wetland
- Sighting
- 3
- Viewing notes
- An undeveloped state wildlife area protecting nesting greater sandhill cranes - the state-threatened, red-crowned giants - among wet meadows and marsh in remote Big Valley
- Intl tip
- Buy a CDFW Lands Pass ahead of time (required for visitors 16+ without a hunting/fishing license), check for seasonal nesting closures, and keep well back from nesting cranes. Spring into early summer is the window.
The guide
Ash Creek is a working state wildlife area in remote Big Valley that shelters nesting greater sandhill cranes - tall, red-crown…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Ash Creek Wildlife Area — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 41.12, -121.05