What are best Mariposas Monarca sanctuaries to visit?

[Jubilacion]

🦋 🦋  Before this season is over in a month we'd like to make a trip to see the Mariposas Monarca. I know Charter Tours is offering a trip but we want to go on our own schedule with some friends. 🦋🦋   

Any help and suggestions appreciated on the drive 🚙 or trip itself! 

What sanctuaries do you like?

Suggestions on any hotels or town recommendations to stay at the night prior?

[Floradude]

I would recommend going with a tour.  Once you get there you still have to have a local guide up the mountain to find the butterflies.

[oasiscloud]

We were in Morelia for a week during Day of the Dead time and then decided to go to the Rosario butterfly reserve which is fairly close. We stayed in Angangueo which is probably the closest town to the reserve. There were some butterflies then, but it was a little early. Late Feb. early March is the best time, so we are going back on the 23rd of this month. We are going to stay in Zitacuaro this time. 

Angangueo is a nice little Pueblo Magico, but there aren't a lot of hotel or restaurant options there. We stayed at Hotel La Margarita. It was OK, but there are more hotel options in Zitacuaro and so we are going to try it this time. It is a bit further from Rosario, but you don't really need to get there before noon as the butterflies don't start flying until it warms up. I believe that many the tours actually stay in Morelia, so that would be an option too. You'd just need to get up early to drive over to Rosario.   

[oasiscloud]

Just to add a bit more, you will get a guide at Rosario, so you don't need to rely on a tour. It is a reserve and they don't allow people to wander around on their own and the locals depend on being guides for income.

You can get a horse up, but they only go about 2/3rds of the way and so you still have a pretty good hike. We hiked all the way last time, but it is quite an uphill hike, so will probably take a horse this time. Even the last 1/3rd is still a good hike. There are other reserves, but from my research this is supposed to be the easiest. I believe the altitude is about 9,000 ft, so there as that factor as well as the solid uphill climb for an hour to hour and 1/2 for the full hike. Hopefully it will be just about 1/2 hour on the horses. So anyway, you do need to have some endurance to make it up.

[Ferret]

We stayed in Angangueo when we visited El Rosario. Froze our butts off in late February. This is where we went next (and wished we had stayed there the night before)...

Agua Blanca Resort Spa Jungapeo (mexicomike.com)

We were on the mountain at 8:30 am... hiked up. It was too early but timing is everything. The butterflies sleep on the tree boughs in many, many layers and bend the branches down with their weight. As the rising sun hits the top layer, the butterflies start flexing their wings and then take to the air. The whole process is repeated until all the butterflies are airborne and the tree branch returns to its normal position. It is a SPECTACULAR sight to see and experience. The only sounds were the beating of a billion butterfly wings and the sigh of the breeze through the trees. The most spiritual thing I have ever experienced.

Do NOT go on the weekends!!!

[ARIBOY]

check out www.ranchosancayetano.com as a place to stay ( just outside  Zitacuaro), and about a 15 minute drive from cerro Pelon, a place where you go by horse up the mountain, and then walk just a bit to the altitude  of the butterflies.  just another option

[Ferret]

Sounds like El Rosario is no longer the place to go... too bad they paved paradise and put up FOUR parking lots. So sad.  Entry to Mexico’s most popular monarch butterfly sanctuary should cost more than $2.77 – Texas Butterfly Ranch

Check out the CLICKABLE link within the article "Piedra Herrada Sanctuary".

And this is the clickable link for Ariboy's post... looks awesome! Rancho San Cayetano - Zitácuaro, Mich

 

[oasiscloud]

We stayed in Zitacuaro last week and went to Cerro Pelon on Thursday. It is about a 30 min. drive from Zitacuaro. We drove to a small village where they had horses. My wife and I each had a horse with a guide that led the horse. There was also a 3rd guide that walked up with us and helped. It it quite a steep trail with lots of rocks and dust and took a full hour to go up on the horses.

We then had to hike up about 300 meters to where a lot of butterflies were. This was very straight up, but the guides helped us up all the way. We then sat there in the forest with butterflies all around and overhead. It was a very unique experience and there were NO other people there. We stayed up there about an hour just laying back on the steep hill and looking up at the butterflies and them also flying down around us.

When we went back down to the horses the guides said the horses needed to rest some more, so we spent another there. It was a very nice clearing very peaceful. Going down on the horses was actually harder than going up!

They had originally told us it would be 1,000 pesos for the two horses, but we gave them 1,500 because they were so helpful.

The next day we drove over to El Rosario just for the drive as it is a very beautiful drive and it takes about an hour. The place was packed! There are two parking lots. One is fairly near the main entrance and it was full with no available parking spaces. The other parking lot had space, but it adds quite a bit more to just get to the main entrance. We didn't stay.

We stayed in a very nice hotel in Zitacuaro, Casa Iturbe: https://www.booking.com/hotel/mx/casa-iturbe-zitacuaro.en-gb.html?aid=304142;label=gen173nr-1FCAEoggI46AdIM1gEaKABiAEBmAEJuAEHyAEM2AEB6AEB-AELiAIBqAIDuAKYjvWQBsACAdICJGNhMTM3OWRlLWI2M2EtNDYxMS1hMjVjLWU3ZmY3NzM1ZWUzMdgCBuACAQ;sid=01173d12583f6b78df2d74fc664cd52c

The area around the hotel isn't that nice, just and old business district, but inside it is an oasis. One of the nicest hotels we've stayed at in Mexico. Zitacuaro is much bigger than we expected, but at least it does have nice hotels and some nice restaurants. The hotel that we stayed at in Angangueo cost about the same, but there is not comparison and as others have said, froze our but of there. Hotel Casa Iturbe is highly recommended for a jump off point to either Cerro Pelon or El Rosario.