Coronado Butterfly Preserve
This butterfly grove has been known by locals for a long time as Ellwood Butterfly Grove. It is now a project of the Santa Barbara Land Trust and the official name is Coronado Butterfly Preserve.
The best time to visit the butterfly grove is in winter, around December and January. It is not really a beach hike, or even a hike because the grove isn't on the beach and isn't very far from where you park the car.
But, you can make a very nice, long walk out of it on the beach after you visit the butterflies, or if there are no butterflies to see.
Best hours are mid-morning when the butterflies are waking up, evening when the owls come out and there is a nice sunset, and then any time in between.
There is no mileage for this easy walk.
Begin this hike on Coronado Drive, near the end. There is a hill with a sign at the bottom that marks the trail to the butterfly grove. It is an easy to follow trail, but can be muddy with puddles that are hard to go through.
Just follow the trail and you should find the butterfly grove behind a rope among the eucalyptus trees. By the way, the best time to go is in the morning right when the sun warms them up. Their clumps will spontaneously explode in a cloud of swirling butterflies.
When you get to the grove, go up the little paths on either side to get the best view. Be very quiet. Make no sound at all. If it is early morning, before the sun has warmed the butterflies, they will mostly be silent and motionless. They arrange themselves in clumps that look like dried leaves. Look closely, because they aren't leaves. They are butterflies. See how they bend the branches with their weight.
If it is later in the day and the sun has warmed them, they will be fluttering about. If you are absolutely silent you can hear the fluttering of their wings. A clatter of clacking sounds.
Watch where you step because you don't want to trample any that are on the ground. Sometimes you will see one with a tag on it. They are being studied. Dead ones with tags on them will sometimes have instructions. Sometimes they want you to mail them.
After you have watched the butterflies, follow the trail out to the bluff. You can go out to the cliff and there is a path leading down to the beach.
There is no mileage for this hike. To see the butterflies is less than a mile round trip.