Monarchs

At my wife's request, I've been looking into the possibility of a trip to see the Monarch butterflies this winter, but am not finding much geezer-specific info. If anyone on the board has done this fairly recently, I'd be interested in the following: length of drive and road conditions between Morelia and Ocampo and between Ocampo and the reserve, name, quality and cost of overnight accommodations nearby, elevation of the area and estimated amount of hiking required between the parking area and the final destination and any other old fart related information that might be helpful.

We made the pilgrimage in February of this year. We did it as a day trip with Jesus Lopez who was excellent. He times your arrival for mid-day when the butterflies are active. It's a full day. But it was fine as a day trip.

At the Refuge, you are assigned a "minder/guide" who walks with you in the interest of environmental protection.. The climb begins at about +/- 7500 feet and goes up about 1000 more. Someone can correct me if I'm off by some.

The climb begins with 625 stairs. I counted them. It was challenging but we took our time. After the stairs, there is an additional climb along a path which was a fairly easy walk.

You can by-pass the stairs by going most of the way on horseback. Horses and guides are available at the trailhead area. There is still some path walk when you leave the horses. Since we walked, I can't speak for the ride up.

As fellow old farts, I can say that we got it done. We went on Sunday and saw many families making the trip. Many quite elderly people and people with mobility issues included. I figured if they could do it, by God, so could I. We went the day after we arrived in Morelia from Chicago. Probably not our best idea since we had not yet really acclimatized from the mid-west flatlands to a much greater altitude. If I did it again, I'd wait a day. So that my lungs adjusted.

If you have anything specific, I can check my notes.

Send me a phone number, Sidney. If you don't call me I will call and tell you our experiences of both trips.

I would be very interested in both your replies. It is something that is on my bucket list. I am a huge fan of hummingbirds and butterflies. If it is something that can't be done as a day trip.What do you recommend? I have never seen anyone asking if it could be a day trip always thought it was a 2 or 3 day trip. It will encourage us to book again next year. It is our last yr. at our timeshare and I am afraid we no longer be forced to save for vacation (aka we book our room when we are there so we have to save and book to come). Is it true from what I have read the numbers have decreased tremendously?

Perhaps I should clarify. We visited the refuge as a day trip from Morelia, not Zihuatanejo. You would have to overnight somewhere coming from Zihuatanejo. The area is certainly very much deserving of its own visit. It's a wonderful trip.

As for numbers of butterflies, I have nothing to compare our experience with, and I know the population is gravely reduced, nonetheless, we saw a ton of monarchs. Quite magical.

Activate your e-mail address here on the message board.

We did it as a day trip from Patzcuaro. We did not use a guide- drove ourselves. Of course there is a guide to go with you once you are there, as previously stated, for environmental reasons. We timed it so we arrived in the parking lot around 10. The climb up took us 2 1/2 hours. Coming down only took 1 1/2 hours. We did this 7 years ago and I am very happy we did, because there is no way I could do it now. Even 7 years ago, I had lots of back pain for about 3 months- but all this is due to my arthritis and certainly will not apply to most people. Everyone is different, with their own challenges. Arriving at the top is best to do around 12-2pm, since this is when the butterflies are most active. If I could, I would do it a 2nd time. It was really neat to see so many monarchs all in one place at one time! The quiet up there is amazing, and you really do hear just the fluttering of wings. Just a bit of magic.

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Linda from Canada
check out my books at www.livingthedreaminmexico.com AND please have a look at www.cookingwithclaudiainzihuatanejo.blogspot.com as well as www.albertoinzihuatanejo.blogspot.com

We did it in January. There are a couple of reserves close by each other. The one we went to, the village at the bottom of the hill the road is not paved across but just the tire lanes going up. There were 2 parking lots, if you park at the first you have a long walk. There was a car fee to enter the area. Our guide drove us up to where the small shops are and parked there. We were right at the entrance of the reserve. We did the horses instead of walking. It was a nice ride for me but Kathie's stirrups weren't adjusted right and she was not familiar with riding a horse and she had saddle sores riding down- never wants to be on a horse again. They had a person to lead our horses up the trail through the forest and you met your guide that you were given at a meadow just below the entrance to see the butterflies. As we were going up met a couple who where complaining because they ready did not see any flying. If it is cold they wait till the sun comes out to start flying around. There were all these large brown areas on the trees and that was the butterflies. As the morning warmed up, they became more active. Kathie got some beautiful videos not know how her IPad got into video and she did not know how to get it back to single. Layer because it can be cold in Morelia in the early morning. We left at 8am and it took about 2 1/2 hours.

LadyM done. I had unactivated it awhile back for personal reasons. This is seriously one of my bucket list items. Our yard was once all sun loving flowers that attracted butterflies and many birds that we fed. Had to quit feeding the birds (except hummers and Orioles because of voles) but has over 30+ years become mostly shade. Which has killed off many of our flowers. Hence people say get rid of the shade. We have 2 trees in our back yard but our neighbors have walnut trees that shade the rest. Our house faces east so our only option is the front. Which in MN doesn't offer enough hrs. of sun.