sbrobert
By Robert Bernstein
Between Christmas and New Year’s we were at Pismo State Beach to see the monarch butterflies.
Here are all of my photos.
The grove is on Highway 1 about half a mile north of West Grand Avenue in Grover Beach. As I reported at our own Ellwood grove in Goleta, the count is down from previous years.
But there were several large clusters of monarch butterflies in the eucalyptus trees. A lot more than what I saw at the Ellwood Main grove a few days earlier.
The Pismo grove is very visitor-friendly. There is plenty of parking along Highway 1, a short walk from the grove. There are informative signs and docents to answer questions. There was even a shop where you could buy books and souvenirs!
There were also several high-quality telescopes set up to give a very close-up view of the butterflies!
But even with a good pair of your own binoculars or a good camera you can get a clear view. The lighting has a big effect on what you will see.
After visiting the butterflies we took a beautiful walk out to the ocean at Pismo State Beach
I would not necessarily recommend making a special trip up there. In our case we were coming back from the Bay Area. But if you are passing through that area as we were, I would definitely recommend making the stop!
