The cranes of Jasper-Pulaski

Such a weekend! I will have to do multiple blogs this week. Let’s begin with Friday. I asked to tag along with Jane and Jan on a trip to Jasper-Pulaski Fish & Wildlife Area to see the migrating sandhill cranes. It’s been on my bucket list for years. Jan had been keeping track of the daily updates that reported a count of nearly 7000 cranes the day before.

I left my house at 7:45 so Jane and I could leave her house at 9:00 to meet Jan at Ikea at 9:30. Logistics. After a quick stop at Starbucks, we were off to Indiana. The traffic wasn’t too bad that time of day except on I65. We got off at the DeMotte exit looking for lunch. Jan was on her phone looking up restaurant reviews for this tiny town. We ended up at Heather’s Diner, which we discovered had won the honor of being named Best Breakfast in Jasper County (not sure there is a real reference point here—Jasper County seems to be largely rural with few restaurants to pick from).

Lunch in DeMotte

If you’ve known me for a while, you know my rule for restaurants that serve breakfast all day is to order breakfast. I had a Western omelet with ham, mushrooms, green pepper, onion, and enough American cheese to coat my teeth. Which I love in a retro raised-on-Velveeta sort of way. The hash browns were brown and crispy; the whole wheat toast had been brushed with melted butter. The table was supplied with individually-wrapped tablespoon portions of Mixed Fruit Jelly. Perfect. Total comfort food. Jane’s turkey and bacon wrap had real roasted turkey breast, not lunch meat, but otherwise was not a standout. Jan’s hot beef had real gravy (plus) but instant mashed potatoes (minus). I took half my breakfast/lunch with me in a Styrofoam box.

On to the Wildlife Area, which is named because it straddles the boundary between Jasper and Pulaski Counties. Oddly, we saw no cranes until we were practically there. When Jane and Jan had been there before, the cranes had been all over the harvested fields eating the spilled grain.

It was hard to tell where we were supposed to be. We pulled into a parking lot by the Hunters’ Check in Station—n.b.: no guns or dogs allowed inside. Says so right above the door.

Check Station in Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. Leave your dogs and guns in the car.

Jan found a map in a kiosk, but I couldn’t make any sense of it primarily because I though the blue line meandering through it was a road when it was in fact a river. Jane did better and took us back to the main road and down to another parking lot. We walked a short distance through a lovely forest.

The trail to the observation deck

At the end of the trail was an observation deck with the World’s Longest Handicapped Ramp.

The observation deck with the handicapped ramp zigzagging up in the foreground (and Jan walking to the car on the right)

There were two high power scopes on the deck through which I verified that the animals in the distance were deer. Thirteen deer, actually, 10 standing and 3 in the grass. There were three cranes behind them.

Thirteen deer and three cranes

Well, there were a hundred cranes, but no 7000. Pat S. told me that you need to be there at dawn or dusk. A big flock was hanging out by some surface water.Here’s one bathing while another dries its wings.

Large flock of cranes by surface water--one is bathing while another dries its wings

Three cranes in flight.

Three cranes in flight

We didn’t see a crane up close until we went back to the car. Sadly, most of the numerous photos I took ended up with the grass in the foreground in focus, not the cranes. Since bifocals, I have become dependent on autofocus. It often lets me down.

The closest we got to a crane

We drove around some more, but no cranes. Lots of folks out at the rifle range. We drove back north on a smaller highway, which was a good deal more pleasant than I65. But we did get caught in rush hour on I80. Lord. We dropped Jan off at her car and drove through more traffic to get back to Jane's, arriving about 6:00. I ate my leftovers and got in my car to drive another hour to get home. Long day.

I’m not crossing this off my bucket list yet. The thing to do would be to leave in the middle of the day to avoid traffic and stay overnight somewhere nearby. (WHERE?? See note on Jasper County restaurants and extrapolate to hotels. Valparaiso, maybe?) See the cranes come in for the night and go back at dawn. Have breakfast at Heather’s and drive back in the middle of the day.  It’s a plan. Might have to wait until I retire.