From the middle of September and continuing for several weeks, the monarchs make their way through the Great Smoky Mountains at Wagon Road Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway, about 35 minutes south of Asheville. You can see the location of Wagon Road Gap along the parkway by scrolling to the bottom of this Blue Ridge Parkway map (pdf).
According to Parkway officials, the altitudes at which the monarchs fly make it difficult to experience the migration anywhere else along their flight to the Mexican border.
On October 7 at Orchard at Altapass along the Blue Ridge Parkway, nature writer Elizabeth Hunter and the orchard staff offer a presentation on monarch butterflies that raise their families on the plentiful milkweed of the century-old orchard. Guests can help tag and release the butterflies for their annual migratory trip to the Mexico.
At over 5,000 feet, Wagon Road Gap serves as the perfect lookout point for the butterflies which can often be seen in profusion alighting on flowers and foliage near this Parkway overlook in September.
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