Top Photo: Female monarch butterfly stops to refuel on long journey south of the border.

It’s that time of year when masses of monarch butterflies trek south, more specifically southwest, to their wintering grounds in the fir forests of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in central Mexico.

On their way they may stop to nectar and even lay eggs so that a new generation of monarchs can complete the journey, overwinter in the Mexican highlands and head back north the following spring to repopulate the north.

The butterflies that were hatched and grown here this late summer and fall season, the final generation of the year, will pick up the torch and head for the hills of Mexico having never traveled there before.

It’s a long and amazing journey these members of the last generation of the year must make. It’s especially amazing when you consider that none of the monarchs making the journey have ever been to the final destination in the past.

An amazing journey indeed.

Ranger Greg