Butterflies at National Bridge State Park

My mom sends me articles about activities to do around the Bay area from the AAA magazine. This is one way that I find out about some of the random activities that I end up doing. Every year, thousands of monarch butterflies migrate down to this warm area in Santa Cruz. There is this grove of Eucalyptus trees nearby where they feed and the park has built wooden pathways down into the grove. We timed it just perfectly in between all of the school groups and were able to enjoy some quiet time in the grove admiring all of the THOUSANDS of butterflies. I have been to several butterfly enclosures in my life but I have never seen as many in one place.

This looks like some kind of hanging pod but it is actually about a hundred butterflies all nestled together resting.

I learned some new things about butterflies- they cannot fly if it is cooler that 55 degrees Fahrenheit and cannot even move if it is under 45 degrees. They are the only creature that can live off of the poisonous milkweed. They stay here until late January until they move off to another location again. It obviously was above 55 degrees since this monarch was spreading her wings and getting ready to fly

Nora absolutely loved the butterflies- she kept saying the word "butterfly" and pointing at them. It was so adorable just how fascinated she was with them

We also went down to the beach to see the natural bridge that used to be connected. It was such a beautiful day and only slightly windy.