The Fifth Annual Mountain Monarch Festival will be held on Saturday, October 4, 2025, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Gorges State Park in Sapphire, NC. This free event celebrates the monarch butterfly’s migration and highlights the species’ declining numbers. It will feature kid activities, crafts, exhibits, food and beverages, educational programs for all ages and a live butterfly release!
This event is FREE and open to the public. Registration is required.
The festival will be held rain or shine.
The festival will celebrate the monarch butterfly during its migration and bring attention to the species’ declining numbers. Gorges State Park lies along the monarch’s migratory route. The butterflies can be seen in late September each year flying over the park’s visitor center on their way south to the high-elevation fir forests of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains, where they overwinter until early spring. Monarch butterflies have two sets of deep orange and black wings and a wingspan of three to four inches. The migratory subspecies of the monarch was recently added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “red list” of the most threatened species on Earth and is now listed as endangered. Those who wish to help monarchs return to healthy population levels can plant locally native milkweed and nectar flowers in their yards and support efforts to reduce pesticide use.
The Mountain Monarch Festival is sponsored by Friends of Gorges State Park and organized in partnership with Monarch Watch, Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority, Transylvania County Library, N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, N.C. Department of Commerce, Transylvania County 4-H, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, N.C. Aquariums, and Native Plant Society’s Land and Sky and Oconee Bell Chapters.
