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Visiting the monarch butterflies in Mexico is not only on my 50 before I am 50 bucket list, it’s something I have wanted to witness for a long time. And I was not disappointed. This was the best experience I have had since going gorilla trekking in Uganda.
Below is everything you need to know about how to visit the overwintering sites of the monarchs in central Mexico.
The monarch butterfly migration
Lets talk about the monarch butterfly migration first though, because this is an incredible feat for any animal and the monarch has recently been listed as endangered thanks to climate change, loss of milkweed plants, and loss of habitat. It’s important to understand the monarch migration and where these losses are occurring so we can better support and protect them.
The beginning of the migratory generation and their long journey to southern Canada starts in the only a few places in central Mexico. These reserves are where the monarchs will feed on the milkweed plants of the forests and breed. Many of the males here will die before the migration happens and the females will start the journey north as the air temperature warms.
They will stop around Texas and a few lower states to lay their eggs on the underside of the milkweed plants and then will die. These eggs will hatch and the caterpillars will feed and grow before metamorphosing into the butterflies, continuing the journey north. This will happen again north of there, 3-4 times total until they reach Canada. Then one generation will make the entire journey back to Mexico to start the cycle over again.
The communities around these reserves in Mexico revere these monarchs, as they are in Mexico during Dia de los Muertes, and it is believed that these butterflies are the spirits of their lost loved ones. If you want to see the migrating butterflies in their greatest concentrations, the reserves in central Mexico are the only places to do this.
So why were they recently listed as endangered in the United States? Well, at one time in the US corn was grown without chemicals. They were not genetically modified to resist herbicides and pesticides at this time and milkweed would grow between the rows and the two plants thrived together in a beautiful relationship. But the demand for growing more corn to feed livestock increased and then genetically modified corn was created and farmers could then spray the corn without killing it, but killing all the milkweed. This created significantly fewer nectar sources for the monarchs as well as the one plant needed to lay their eggs.
Monarchs will feed on other plants, but like human food, some sources provide more energy than others and eating from more of these “junk food” plants causes them to have less energy to get to the next stage of their migration.
If you want to learn more I highly recommend reading Sarah Dykman’s book Bicycling with Butterflies, where she bikes the entire monarch migration, raising awareness of this important species.
Why are monarchs important to protect?
Monarchs play a key role in the ecosystem and their loss would send ripples through the world. As a key pollinator, losing the monarchs, that is one less species to aid in pollinating flowering plants, including fruit. Their caterpillars also provide food to birds and other species.
Getting to the butterfly reserves
The reserves aren’t the easiest to get to honestly. But it’s worth the drive. There are some tour companies such as National Geographic and World Wildlife Fund’s Natural Habitat tours that provide a great chance to see these places in a way that benefits the monarchs and supports their conservation. These are, however, rather expensive tours.
The best alternative is to rent a car and drive there yourself. It’s not the most sustainable, but there are very few ways to get there. I recommend using Discover Cars to rent your car as they work with local car companies only and provide the liability insurance that is required by Mexico and separate from your credit card insurance or other purchased insurance. You can pick up your car from the Mexico City airport and drive the 3 hours to the towns surrounding the reserves.
Where to stay
There are not many places around the reserves that offer places to stay. The closest one to El Rosario and Sierra Chincua is the town of Angangueo. This cute little town has several hotels, though they book up quickly during the monarch viewing season. The other popular option is Zitacuaro, which is further south of the reserves, but a bigger town with more options of places to stay.
I chose to stay just outside of Cuidad Hidalgo to the northwest of the reserves. This is about an hour to an hour and a half drive to the reserves, but it also has access to a larger town and there are so really cool, non-butterfly related sites to check out in the area as well (see below for more). I stayed at Hotel Ex Hacienda el Molino, which was a 5 minute drive to a really cool cave site. It came with a small breakfast and the staff were exceptionally friendly.
Tip: Google maps (or at least the maps app on my phone) did not take me directly to my hotel, it took me to some sketchy place across the road which was very confusing at night and when I called the hotel, their English was not good enough for them to understand the problem. Thankfully I figured it out, but just be aware of this if you are using an IPhone GPS for navigation here. This was my only issue with the maps on my phone.
Best time to go
The monarchs are there between December and March, spending their winter months in the reserves. The closer to March you get the more activity you will see as they are eating and breeding and preparing for their journey.
Visiting the monarch butterfly biosphere reserve area
The monarch butterfly reserves are each a UNESCO world heritage site and I highly recommend visiting more than one to experience this incredible gathering in different ways. The monarchs spend their time in the Oyamel forests, clinging to the tree branches and tree trunks of Oyamel firs. To see them in such numbers absolutely blew me away.
El Rosario butterfly sanctuary
This is by far the most popular of the monarch butterfly sanctuaries. Get there early to avoid some of the bus crowd. As you approach the small village before the reserve there will be a couple of guys holding up a rope that will ask for 80 pesos. This is the cost to park your car. Pay it and move on. It seems sketchy when you first pull up, but I assure you they are supposed to be there.
At the reserve, there is some parking and the area is surrounded by lunch stalls and gift shops. You can decide to walk up to the sanctuary or take a horse. You will be required to go with a guide, though they may not be able to speak English. It is around 100 pesos to enter and the horse ride will cost around 170 pesos one way. It is a significant walk at altitude, so you will need to decide if you are prepared for that walk.
Make sure to bring water with you and wear sturdy shoes. It is cooler up at these heights, so you might want to dress a bit warmer as well. Once you are inside the protected area, you must stay quiet, as the vibrations from talking cause significant stress to the monarchs and uses up energy they very badly need for their long migration ahead. The area is also roped off, so you cannot walk right up to the trees where the monarchs are hanging out, but if you go around 10-11, they will slowly begin to be more active as the sun warms up the area. Stick around until closer to noon to see the full affect. They will begin to fly around and look like lightning bugs they way they sparkle through the forest.
Around this area there are also a significant number of the native milkweeds, which provides them the energy they need for the long journey, other plants in the area are like a sugar hit and considered like junk food.
Once you have spent as much time as you want surrounded by these incredible monarchs you can head back down and grab some lunch from one of the food stalls. The food is pretty typical and tasty, no matter which stall you choose.
Sierra Chincua sanctuary
Another day trip from Cuidad Hidalgo is the Sierra Chincua sanctuary. This one was by far my favorite. There were fewer people and I felt closer to the monarchs here and they were incredibly active, some even landing on me.
The set-up is similar, arriving at the base of the sanctuary my guide was there saying I required a guide and he climbed into my car and took me up, where along the way I paid a group the same 80 pesos for car parking. Then I paid the 100 pesos to visit the sanctuary and here I decided to take a horse up to the sanctuary (I was starting to feel a bit under the weather and wasn’t certain I could easily make it up to the sanctuary, but felt I would be able to walk back down).
Again, there are a couple places to eat lunch and some gift shops. My guide here expected a tip, which was different from my experience at El Rosario, where my guide didn’t seem to expect anything and just left us at the end of our tour. Overall though, this experience was incredible, I would even put it up there with Gorilla trekking in Uganda, that was how powerful of an experience it was.
There are additional monarch reserves in the area, including Valle bravo reserve, however, during my visit I was told that there were not many monarchs there that year and so I decided not to go.
Other things to do in the area
Grutas de Tziranda
Located 5 minutes from Hotel Ex Hacienda El Molina, this cool little area has a picnic site and a cave system that houses a significant number of species of bats. When I arrived, no one was manning the booth and so I could only explore into the cave area a short distance, but when it is manned, you can take a guided tour into the caves.
Laguna Larga
If you want to spend the day soaking in a natural hot springs, this is the place to go. Located on a small lake, you can rent boats, have a picnic, camp, or soak in one of several hot springs. I would recommend walking up over the red suspension bridge and climb up towards the larger hot springs area. There are great change rooms, a small canteen, and some picnic areas for families.
A word of warning. There is a significant smell of sulphur in the water and you will smell of sulphur after (it was in my hair for days).
Travel Tips
- Take out pesos in advance – most places do not take credit cards (including the reserves), so make sure to have pesos with you. You will also need them for all the tolls on the road (of which there are many).
- Watch out for the cops – cops will pull you over and try to tell you that you were speeding and that you need to pay them. They took $100 USD from me and kept it to cover the “incident.” There are very crooked cops there, so beware. They got me at one of the tolls as I was slowing down to stop. If they know you are a tourist, they will find some way to swindle you, so beware.
- Purchase travel insurance – I would recommend this for anywhere you go, just in case. You never know what could happen and instead of being stuck in a bad situation use the travel insurance to get past it.
- The kindness of the people is incredible – I had a lady help me take money out of the ATM machine because I didn’t understand what it was asking me and she gave her time to help me and asked for nothing in return. I also had issues with my rental car and stopped next to a autoparts store and the men inside spent the next hour helping me figure out what was wrong and temporarily fixing it and again asking for nothing in return. One even gave me his phone number in case something happened along the way saying he had friends that could be there to help me if something happened. Because let me tell you, I called the car rental company (Localiza) to tell them that I was pretty sure my car had overheated and they didn’t have a clue. It was actually incredibly frustrating talking to them. Thank goodness someone was able to help me out, because I was right, my car had overheated.
- Many people in that area do not speak English – if you know some Spanish, great, if not, having a translate app can be extremely helpful as not many people speak English in this area.
- If driving stick to the toll roads – I was warned by multiple people that if you plan to drive from Mexico City to the monarch reserves, stick to the toll roads. Even though it is a rather costly endeavor, it is safer and the roads are also in much better shape.
- Watch out for the humps in the road – as you pass through the smaller towns you will need to watch out for the humps in the road. Sometimes you don’t see them until you are on top of them, because they are not well marked and they can destroy your car. So pay attention.
Concluding thoughts
Seeing the monarch butterflies in their wintering grounds is an absolute must. It will awe and inspire you, of that I promise. Now that this incredible species has been listed as endangered, it is even more important to protect their habitat, in Mexico and along their migration route. So, if you are able, I highly recommend planting milkweed in your area to give the monarchs food and a place to lay their eggs.
Again, if you want to learn more about the monarch migration and the impacts we have had on this species make sure to check out Bicycling with Butterflies by Sara Dykman or listen to her story on this episode of the Armchair Explorer podcast.
