Gorges State Park to Host Third Annual Mountain Monarch Festival on Oct. 4

Back by popular demand, the third Annual Mountain Monarch Festival will be at Gorges State Park in Sapphire on Saturday, Oct. 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This free event, hosted by the park and sponsored by the Friends of Gorges State Park and other partners, will celebrate the monarch butterfly during its migration and raise awareness about the species’ declining numbers. The park lies along the monarchs’ migratory route. The butterflies can be seen in early October each year flying over the park, heading south to the high-elevation fir forests in central-southern Mexico’s Volcanic Belt, where they overwinter until early spring.

The festival will offer educational programs and exhibits as well as children’s crafts, face painting by Brevard College cheerleaders, a butterfly hike, and a Monarch Migration Passport to guide visitors through the activities. The featured speakers will be Heyward Douglas, an entomologist who is a former naturalist and has served on the Foothills Trail Conservancy’s board of directors since 1989, who will talk about visiting the wintering area for the monarchs in Mexico, and Brian Bockhahn, interpretation and education specialist for North Carolina State Parks, who will discuss “Monarch Life Cycle and Tagging.”

A variety of activities and programs will be offered, along with food trucks from local vendors. Friends of Gorges State Park are the sponsors for the Mountain Monarch Festival in partnership with the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Monarch Watch, N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, the N.C. Department of Commerce, Conserving Carolina, the Land of the Sky and the Oconee Bell chapters of the Native Plant Society, Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority, Friends of Panthertown, Mud Dabbers of Brevard, and Killer Bees Honey. Transylvania County Library will be on-site along with local art and native plant vendors.

The event, activities and programs are free and open to the public. The event will be held rain or shine and is first-come, first-served. For event details, visit https://www.friendsofgorges.org