The Ocampo Rosario Monarch Biosphere Reserve is near Morelia. The parking lot is a bit under 10,000 ft of altitude and you can camp for free in the parking lot. You have to pay 50 pesos to drive into the area or about $2.75 USD.
We arrived in the afternoon and made two mistakes. First, some kids "helped" us park and instead of giving them coins I gave them two of the soccer balls. It became obvious that this was a mistake when it dawned on us that the vendors that serve this place all live in the area and they teach their children from early on to be persistent and not take no for an answer. They bugged us for more balls for hours.
Our second mistake was not heading straight up the trail to see the monarchs flying in the afternoon as they react to the sun by flying. We could have done that and still gone up in the morning to see them waking up to the sun as well.
As it turns out, we just hung out until 5:30 when everyone leaves and found another overlanding couple to camp by who were from Eastern Canada. After Pam dropped our last bottle of wine they offered us some of theirs and we shared road stories and routes and conversation for a couple of hours and had coffee with them in the morning before Pam and I headed up the trail.
The trail is 1.74 miles with 875 feet of elevation gain and the first half of a mile is lined with vendors on both sides. You pay 50 pesos per person to enter and then haul your butt up the hill. We managed it in 50 minutes and you reach a smallish area where you can see the large, hanging groups of monarchs that look like bug nests. As you look across you see the sun hit the nests and the butterflies wake up. They fly and when the sun comes to another group they land on the group and they begin waking and so on.
When enough of them are flying they head for sunny meadows and if you are in one you are treated to thousands of them flying around you. We even saw a pair mating which was cool and weird at the same time.
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| These two were mating. |
The way down was full of people heading up until the break where the people exiting get their own route and then you are good until you reach the vendors again. The trail is lined with a bush with small, red flowers and lots of hummingbirds getting nectar from them.
We readied the van and headed down the hill. There are 50 topes - speed bumps - from the reserve to Ocampo to deal with before the highway.
We set our maps to no tolls and headed to Patzcuaro for a couple of nights before we head to the Pacific Ocean for some beach time.
Peace and love and more soon...
