Nebraska events worth the drive

Nebraska hosts one of the planet's great wildlife spectacles, and it happens in the quietest weeks of the travel year: from late February into early April, hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes stage on the Platte River between Kearney and Grand Island, lifting off the sandbars at sunrise in numbers that fill the sky. Viewing runs on river time — blinds and bridge overlooks at dawn and dusk, empty middles of the day — and that rhythm suits a camper: heated rig, early alarm, short drives along the interstate corridor, a warm lunch while the birds loaf in the cornfields. March on the Platte is cold and windswept, so winterized plumbing and a real furnace matter. The riverside conservation groups post migration updates through the season; time your dates to the peak.