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Natural Bridges

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Natural Bridges State Beach is world-renowned for its yearly migration of monarch butterflies. Visitors can see thousands during the butterflies’ peak season. The best time to see monarchs in the park is usually from mid-October to late January. 

This beach, with its famous natural bridge, is an excellent place to view shore and ocean birds, migrating whales, and seals and otters playing offshore. Further along the beach, tidepools offer a glimpse of life beneath the sea. Low tides reveal sea stars, crabs, sea anemones, and other colorful ocean life.
 Directions Take Swift Avenue west from Hwy 1, or follow West Cliff Drive north along the in-town bluffs until it ends at Natural Bridges.

ParkStore/Visitor Center The ParkStore/Visitor Center features displays on the monarch butterflies and other features of the park. An aquarium features animals found in the tidepools. A video is available for viewing. The ParkStore/Visitor Center is open most weekends and some weekdays. Call (831) 423-4609 for current visitor center hours and special events.



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Monarch Butterfly Natural Preserve
The park's Monarch Grove provides a temporary home for up to 100,000 Monarchs each winter.   From roughly mid-October through mid-February, the Monarchs form a "city in the trees." 

The area's mild ocean air and eucalyptus grove provide a safe roost until spring. In the spring and summer, the butterflies live in the valley regions west of the Rocky Mountains where milkweed, the only plant a Monarch caterpillar eats, is plentiful.   

The Monarch Grove has been declared a Natural Preserve, thus protecting the Monarchs and their winter habitat from human encroachment or harm. This is the only State Monarch Preserve in California. Access to the preserve area is limited to a handicap accessible boardwalk and observation area.

The grove contains eucalyptus trees which are located in a canyon, providing the Monarch needed shelter from the wind. These winter flowering trees are also a convenient food source for the butterfly. On chilly days when the temperature drops below 60 degrees, the butterflies cluster together in the eucalyptus trees for warmth. 

The park maintains a demonstration milkweed patch where visitors may view Monarch eggs, caterpillars and chrysalides. For about half a year, milkweed is the Monarch's home, super market and maternity ward. The Monarch larva eats only the milkweed plant.

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