Natural Bridges State Park is located in Santa Cruz, California, 
on the Monterey Bay about ten miles from our school.  The park is named 
after the natural bridges that were carved through cliffs by water.  One 
of the bridges collapsed a long time ago, but you can still see water 
smash through the smaller one.  Pelicans and cormorants like to sit on 
top of the bridge to dry their wings and look at people. Natural Bridges 
State Park is a place that we like to go any time of year.  Most of the 
time you can boogie board, surf and swim at the beach.  From October to 
March, you can  see the Monarch butterflies that come to spend the 
winter.  The butterflies live in a Eucalyptus grove, a short distance 
from the beach.  We will be describing what we saw on a recent field trip 
there.

When you first come to the park, you see sand, lots of  tan sand. 
You hear the ocean breaking on chocolate rocks.  You can smell the fresh 
salty air and feel a soft breeze on your skin.   Pelicans are on the 
natural bridges.  Some of them are rocking with their wings open and 
their huge beaks sticking out and some of them are sitting with their 
wings closed and their beaks tucked to their long white necks.  The 
scenery is gorgeous.  We could stay here forever, but we walk away from 
the ocean on a sandy path surrounded by cool, green ice plant.  We walk 
down a short hill and up another and we are in the picnic area.

The picnic area has little bright green grass sprouts popping up 
everywhere because of the rain.  There are wooden picnic tables and black 
metal barbecues.  We hear birds chirping.  There are lots of trees that 
are good for climbing.  The Eucalyptus trees have silvery brown bark and 
green banana shaped leaves that smell minty.  They drop little nuts that 
look like waxy brown hats with white and green speckles.  The Monterey 
pines have lots of pine cones.  We found one that had been partly eaten 
by a squirrel.  Right behind the picnic area is a parking lot and the sky 
blue Visitor Center.

Next to the Visitor Center is a small fenced in area with 
milkweed plants and Monarch caterpillars.  When the caterpillars are 
first born, they eat their egg shell.  They have a white body and a black 
head and they eat all the time, they arevery hungry!  Milkweed is their 
favorite food and they have eaten almost all of the leaves.  When they 
are a few days old, their shape is like a long oval that is two to four 
inches long.  They have one mouth, one small nose, two small black eyes 
and two black antennae with bumps on the end.   They move very slowly on 
their sixteen short, sticky legs (ten in the back and six in the front). 
Monarch caterpillars  have beautiful white, black, green and yellow 
stripes.  After about ten days they begin to turn into a chrysalis and 
they start to turn green.

The Monarch trail is next to the caterpillar area.   The trail is 
a redwood boardwalk with child size fences on each side so that everyone 
stays on the trail.  It zigs and zags down into a Eucalyptus grove.  We 
notice that the Eucalyptus have branches that look like snakes that are 
shedding their skin.  From a distance the trees are like grass in the 
sky.  We see their reflection in the pond near the top of the trail where 
three mallard ducks are cleaning themselves on a log.  It is very quiet 
and reminds us of a place that makes you feel happy.  It could be in a 
picture, or it could be in your mind and it will make you happy when you 
see it.

We walk a short distance and we come to the Monarch observation 
deck .  It is a huge square redwood deck where you can watch the 
butterflies.    We hear scrub jays squawking  and  an occasional ribbit 
from a  frog.  It smells  like a damp forest.  Soon, we notice a few 
butterflies on bushes near the ground.  They are twitching their wings, 
but not flying.  Lots of butterflies are hanging in clusters from the 
trees looking like dead, brown leaves.  As we look longer, we notice more 
and  more brown clusters hanging from the Eucalyptus trees.  Some are 
very close and some are far away.  When the sun shines on them, they open 
into a pretty, bright orange flower.  If the temperature goes above 
fifty-five degrees, they leave the group and start to fly around.  The 
Monarchs have beautiful fall colors - orange, black and creamish white. 
After twenty minutes, some butterflies begin flittering around.  As adult 
insects, all they do is sip nectar with their long  proboscis (tongue).  
It uncurls like a tissue paper party favor when you blow in it, so they 
can drink sugar water for energy.   Some of them land on blackberry 
bushes and some land on us.  When we take one more step, they fly away.  
If you touch the special powder on their wings, they die.  Today is not 
the best day for viewing the butterflies because it is overcast and it 
didn't get real warm.  Most of the butterflies stayed  clumped together 
on the trees.  On a warm day, you can see thousands of butterflies 
dancing in the sun shine.

We walked back up the boardwalk to have a snack in the picnic 
area.  Then, we made butterfly kites and ran around with them on the 
beach.  We jump roped with pieces of seaweed and made sand castles.  
After lunch, we went on a hike and found a fox leg and skull, a newt and 
some dead butterflies.  We will remember this visit to our special place 
for a long time.

Mr. Andrews' Class
Room 10

 
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