Getting to the site, Cerro Pelon, Monarch Butterfly Reserve

To get there it was a long drive up a winding road with the caravan, we camped over night and then took a horse ride further up the hill to the oyamel fir trees where the butterflies migrate to each year. The horse trail was steeper than it looks in the photos.

The route the butterflies take and their life cycle are shown by an ICF diagram, Illinios conservation foundation.

The Butterflies

We got to the butterflies at about 9am so they were all still huddled together on the branches for warmth, but as the sun came out and the day got hotter they started to move.

 

A sunny spot lower down the mountain, Monarch Butterflies Reserve

Mariposa Monarca or Monarch butterfly in English.

Like the snowbird RVers the butterflies move south from the cold weather of Canada and Northern USA in winter. In about October the monarchs that live in the Eastern states, usually east of the Rocky Mountains, will migrate to Mexico and hibernate in oyamel fir trees. They use the exact same trees each and every year when they migrate, which is just amazing because they aren’t the same butterflies that were there last year, these butterflies are the fourth generation of monarch butterflies. How do they know where and which trees to hibernate in? They are also the only insects that migrate to a warmer climate that is 2,500 miles away each year...….. Love these guys.

After watching them start to move, we took the horses further down the hill to sunny spot and watched them fly down the valley.

Cerro Pelon Camp site

 

Cerro Pelon Camp site

We were the only ones there.