Celebrating the Great Western Monarch Migration

Photo Credit: Kathy Vilim, Monarch Butterfly on Willow Bush

~Orange wings against blue sky, floating effortlessly high above us…their flight is so Free! Watching Monarchs fly makes our spirits fly free, too~

Pismo Beach, California:

The Amtrak train (at Grover Beach Station) lets off a good hearty whistle, as I step out onto the platform with my sister, Jeanne. We have traveled some 175 miles north to the Central Coast from Los Angeles to experience the Annual Western Monarch Migration.  Loaded with supplies for a couple of days of camping, we walk outside into the fresh ocean air and make our way northwest on Pacific Coast Highway to the Butterfly Grove of Pismo Beach. It is a short walk alongside the railroad tracks, and our campground is located just next door.

Migration of the West Coast Monarchs:

It is Autumn and the Great Monarch Migration is underway.  Most of us have heard of the Great Annual Migration of the Monarchs, where the butterflies travel as far as 4500 miles from Canada south to the overwintering grove in Michoacan, Mexico. But few people know about the Migration of the West Coast Monarchs.  The Monarchs that live west of the Rockies (California, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico) do not need to make the long journey to Eastern Mexico to overwinter.  Instead, they choose to fly to groves on the Central and Southern California coast where the climate is just right for their needs. These groves are some of California’s natural treasures, and how the Monarchs find these groves is one of the many Monarch mysteries.

Of the more than 400 overwintering groves along the Pacific Coastline... READ MORE 

As published in Whole Life Magazine February/March 2017 issue.