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Pelican Ridge is part of a small string of mountains directly east of the Blackfoot Reservoir, home to a very large population of pelicans, cormorants, and gulls, hence the name Pelican Ridge. To its immediate south lays a marshland called Goose Lake and a short distance to the east across Meadows Creek and Chubb Flat is Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge, home to the largest hardstem bulrush marsh in North America.
This beautiful marshland refuge hosts a large nesting population of greater sandhill cranes; as many as 1200 individuals are counted in the valley during migration and staging times. The refuge is a birding destination, and a good area to view these rare trumpeter swans. The area between Goose Lake and Grays Lake is also marshy wetlands following Meadow Creek as it meanders through Chubb Flat past the foothills of White Mountain in the Little Valley Hills all the way up through Crooked Creek Flat to its headwaters below Blackfoot Mountain.
