Visit to Michoacan and the Monarchs
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2006
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Trip End
Feb 28, 2006
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One of our favorite side trips this year was a two night, three day side trip to Michocan, a nearby state so we could visit the winter home of the Monarch butterflies. There are five sanctuaries in the Sierra Madre mountains that are the winter home to about 20 million Monarchs that migrate annually from south eastern Canadan, northeastern US and the Midwest. They arrive in late November and stay to March in a state of semi hibernation, clinging in clumps of millions to the tall trees in the high mountains. While they don't eat while here, they do need to drink so when the sun hits the mountain glades mid day, they come alive and swarms of hundreds of thousands unfurl their wings and fly around to seek water. Two sanctuaries are open to visitors and we went to one for the day. A 2 hour 40 minute drive from Morelia brought us to the start of the trail, where you climb about 1 1/2 miles but about1,500 feet to get to the glade where they nest. The trail is gradual but the elevation makes slow going unless you are really fit, but the hike was worth it. Vale la pena which is worth the pain. We were fortunate that the sun was out that day so we saw the full process, the clustering, sleeping butteflies and then the swarming. As we hiked down we were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of butterflies, truly amazing. I won't go into all the details about this migration but it is truly amazing to see them in their winter home and to realize that the butteflies we are seeing are the sixth or seventh generation descendants of those who were here last year and find this spot through some genetic code. When they leave in the spring they will live long enough to get into the states but then breed and die in Texas and then it will be another six generations as they return north to begin the whole process again. It is very hard to capture the scene without a telephoto lens and tripod.
