Texas_Highways_-_October_2019

30 texashighways.com (^) Photo: Larry Ditto
San Antonio
3.75 hours
Austin
5 hours
Houston
5.5 hours
Dallas
8 hours
Fa l l
Aflutter
Fly away to the Rio Grande Valley to see a
wide array of beautiful butterflies
By Daniel Blue Tyx
T
he Texas Butterfly Festival promises visitors
“the best butterflying in America.” It might
seem like hyperbole were the claim not
backed up by the fact that the Rio Grande
Valley contains a greater diversity of butterflies than
anywhere else in the country—more than 300 species
and counting, or roughly 40 percent of the butterflies
in North America. You can see a great deal of them
at the festival, which takes place the first week of
November at the National Butterfly Center in Mission.
All of those butterflies—condensed within a region
that’s easy to traverse over a weekend—make a fall
tour of the Valley a must-do on any Texas bucket list.
The weather in tropical South Texas is inviting
year-round, but the very best time to see butterflies
is October and November. That’s when monarchs are
G E TAWAY | RIO GRANDE VALLEY BUTTERFLY TRAIL