Monarch Sanctuary

Yesterday, we visited the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary way up in the mountains near a small town called Ocompo. The drive was beautiful as it meandered through a patchwork of fields and little farm houses on the steep hill sides. Once we reached the park, we were met by several children selling walking sticks. Also, as we walked to the entrance, we passed about 50 or more little make shift shops and restaurants for all of the tourists. We were a litte put off by this but kept onward. The walk up was nice and fairly steep. I tried not to feel tired as I walked next to small children, old grandmothers and grandfathers and even mothers carrying their babies up the steep climb. Once to the top we found a crowd of people gathered around several trees. As we looked closer, we could see masses of Monarch butterflies hanging off of the branches. Millions of them piled on top of one another. Simply an amazing sight. People were encouraged to be silent, which was most difficult for the children.
The monarchs are hibernating here in the sanctuary for the winter. This particular colony of monarchs travel from Central Mexico to Florida and Canada, and then back to Mexico. Over the course of the migration five gernerations of butterflies are born. The last generation born in Canada live 7-8 months and make the long trek back to Mexico. Wow. They stay at about 10,000 feet in the temperate forests here and are protected by the trees. We lucked out on the weather, it was nice and sunny, so some of the butterlies were flying around as well. Definitely worth the visit.