January 26,2007

On our way out of town headed for Santa Barbara, we stopped in a park where the largest colony of Monarch Butterflies west of the Mississippi come and mate (picture). The trees were very large and tall and they were full of large clumps of these butterflies. They were hard to spot until you knew what you were looking for. These clumps of butterflies looks like a hive of bees all tight together(picture dark clump on white trunk). They had telescopes set up and volunteer people who explained to everyone about the Monarch Butterflies and their lifestyle. Everyday when we drove the park on our way to different things. We would see these people in this park and we couldn't figure out why everyone would be walking around there, as we couldn't see anything from the road. We were glad we stopped on our way out of town as it was very interesting and educational to see.