MONARCH BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY

There is simply no other experience in the world quite like walking through towering pine trees covered from top to bottom with millions upon millions of orange-and-black monarch butterflies.

From mid-November to Mid-March, the monarchs make their miraculous annual migration from the US and Canada to roost in the 10,000-ft. pine forests of central Michoacan. How the monarchs find the exact same trees year after year (each arriving group is five generations removed from the last) is still a scientific mystery.

Stay the night in the town of Angangueo and get up early to make the short drive to one of the two sanctuaries, Sierra Chincua or El Rosario. The best time of day to catch the butterflies is around 10 or 11am when the sun begins to break through the leafy canopy and the sleepy hordes of monarchs flap their wings and come to life.
 

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