Robert Aldana has taken his kids—now teenagers—to see the monarch butterflies in Santa Cruz ever since they were little, but this fall the display is extra special.
“This is one of the most incredible years of monarchs that I’ve seen at Natural Bridges,” said Aldana, who lives just 10 minutes away in Scotts Valley. “I don’t remember ever seeing the trees as full of butterflies as they are now.”
Aldana is just one of the local fans who’ve reported big bunches of butterflies clumped in the blue gum eucalyptus trees along the Monarch Grove Trail at Natural Bridges State Beach (opens in new tab).
Monarch butterflies flock to the California coast (opens in new tab) to overwinter because of its sunny, mild climate. After a long decline in population, the number of monarchs counted in California and Arizona by volunteers for the Xerces Society, an international conservation group, over the past two years showed promising growth (opens in new tab).
The 2023-24 monarch count is currently underway. And though experts believe this winter’s count may show a dip (opens in new tab) from last year, early anecdotal evidence from the Santa Cruz area appears to show the opposite. Aldana’s report of an uptick in local monarchs was echoed by others on social media.
Where To See Monarch Butterflies Near Santa Cruz
California state park sites from Santa Cruz to San Diego (opens in new tab) accounted for 44% of all overwintering western monarchs in 2019. The butterfly flock peaks between mid-November and mid-December, but clumps can often be seen until late January.
At Natural Bridges State Beach (opens in new tab)—the only State Monarch Preserve in California (opens in new tab)—a short, ADA-accessible trail with interpretive signage leads from the visitor’s center to the spots where butterflies hang out in the trees overhead, making for an easy and economical day trip from the Bay Area.
“Parking at Natural Bridge State Beach is just $10 and supports the park,” says Jennifer Murray, a spokesperson for Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks (opens in new tab). “Once you’ve paid for parking at a state park, that receipt is good all day at any state park in California.”
That means one small fee enables butterfly fans to hit several other Santa Cruz-area monarch-filled state beaches on the same day, including Lighthouse Field (opens in new tab) and New Brighton (opens in new tab). A cruise down past Carmel gets road trippers into Point Lobos (opens in new tab) and Andrew Molera (opens in new tab) state parks, which also play host to flocks of monarchs.
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When the butterfly safari is over, Murray recommends hitting more state parks on the way back to the Bay Area, including Wilder Ranch State Park (opens in new tab) for hiking and biking, Año Nuevo State Park (opens in new tab) for elephant seals and the San Mateo Coast State Beaches (opens in new tab) like Pescadero, San Gregorio and Pebble state beaches for a nice picnic or sunset.