Butterflies — on the road to Morelia

By Glen Bruels
This is part of a series called Michoacan 2025

Today we experienced something that I have always wanted to experience — going to a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. We visited the Sierra Chincua sanctuary, located within the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt at over 9500 feet in altitude. The temperatures at that altitude are pretty mild here (40-60 degrees F), so it provides a pretty stable microclimate. And the dense oyamel fir forests provide excellent roosting sites. In fact, they are doing a community-driven conservation effort in increase and diversify the forest. Despite best efforts, the populations are decreasing. Deforestation in the Mexican wintering grounds has contributed to the decline. Haing insufficient forest means there are insufficient places for the Monarchs to roost and inadequate protection for them in inclement weather. In fact the population has declined by between 23 and 72% in the past 10 years. Things like climate change and agricultural pesticides also contribute to the decline. The Monarchs have now been listed as an endangered species. The Monarchs we saw here are actually from the Eastern US and Canada (the Monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains winter on the California Coast — they are declining even faster!). Their transits span up to 3000 miles — and they do it twice a year! It appears that the use a combination of solar navigation and magnetic fields to find their way and multiple generations travel together — each generation playing a specific role. Touring the sanctuary was quite a challenge. To get to the area where the butterflies were, we had to hike a number of trails. While it was only a mile each way, there were lots of ups and downs at an altitude of just under 11,000 feet. Unfortunately, Deb was really affected by the altitude and ultimately had to be taken down by a horse named Luna. Along the way, we were surrounded by a broad cross section of flowering plants that the butterflies feast from when the weather is warm. Unfortunately during our visit, it was both cold and cloudy meaning that the butterflies huddled together in massive clumps (estimated at up to 2000 per clump!). This is where we learned to appreciate what the forest does for them — it provides a blanket and umbrella to keep them safe when the weather is bad. We stayed there for about 15 minutes just taking it all in and then started our trek back. It’s times like this (full nature immersion) when I both double down on my appreciation of the life around us and my desire to help turnaround what is a “going out of business curve” for the Monarchs.

Arriving at the Sierra Chincua Monarch Sanctuary.
This is one of several Monarch Sanctuaries that extend from Michoacan into Mexico State.
The entrance to the sanctuary is at about 9500 feet and you have to climb more than 1000 additional feet in about a mile. They offered horses to go part way — Deb indulged!
Once we got about 2/3 of the way up the trail, everyone had to walk. Note the altitude!
The intrepid hikers making their way to the Monarchs.
The hillsides were covered with flowers of all colors of the spectrum. The nectar of these are what the Monarchs feed on.
I particularly liked this one (Cardinal Sage), but there were other sages, paintbrushes, lupines, geraniums, etc.
Had it been a sunny, warm day, this is what we would have seen — lots of flying Monarchs.
But instead we saw this — clumps of Monarchs huddling together for warmth everywhere we looked.
Each of these clumps can hold up to around 2000 Monarchs!
A few Monarchs were flying around, but that was the exception to the rule.
Sadly, a number of them die from the cold. These volunteers are out here to monitor the situation.
The views looking far below into the valley were beautiful.
Sadly, the altitude finally got to Deb and her horse, Luna, had to come and rescue her.
This is the highest point we reached on the walk — a scant 46 feet from 11,000!
A well-deserved snack at the bottom of the trail.

After a busy day and another healthy (but beautiful) drive, we arrived in Morelia which we will explore tomorrow.

This entry was posted in Mexico, Michoacan, Travel
Glen Bruels

I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.

Related Posts