This is a letterbox and is "offset" from the coordinates listed.  See full description below for clue to letterbox. Do not attempt to reach from Hwy. 36.

This is another in my Texas Treasures series. Round trip, this is just over a mile walk. It is a nice flat walk and can be a nice walk or bike ride.

Monarchs are the only butterflies known to make long distance migrations. They are members of a tropical family that cannot survive cold winters. North American monarchs migrate south in the fall to California, Mexico or Florida. On the way north in the spring they lay eggs. It's the young produced by those and the next generation's eggs that return all the way north and start south again.

Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed plants. Female monarchs can lay between 400 and 600 eggs. Their caterpillars absorb the poisons produced by the plant and become poisonous themselves. Birds that try to eat monarchs or their caterpillars become ill. They quickly learn that monarchs are not good to eat. Other butterflies, such as Queens and Viceroys, copy the colors of monarchs so that birds won't eat them either.

Adults feed on flower nectar. Caterpillars feed on plant leaves, preferring milkweeds and dogbanes. Monarchs must eat a lot to store fat to use as an energy source during cold weather.

Adult monarch butterflies are orange above with black veins and white spotted wing borders. Males have a black scent patch on a vein across the middle of the hind wing.

Monarchs return by the tens or hundreds of thousands to the same groves of trees each winter. They are sluggish during the winter and feed only on warm days. Humans are trying to protect these important places by creating butterfly preserves. Researchers study monarch migration by tagging individual butterflies to see where, how far and how fast they travel.

To learn more about how you can help the Monarchs, please visit http://www.monarchwatch.org.

***To the Box***
From Somerville, head north on FM 60 and turn left on Church Ave just past Oak Lawn Cemetery. Drive toward Lake Somerville and the road will make a sharp left. The cemetery will be on your right and you will see a parking area. Park here (Parking coordinates are included). There will be a gate across the road leading up to the dam, but it's easy to get through it. Walk up to the dam road and turn right. Walk to the end (about 1/2 mile) and you will come to a gate (the posted coordinates of this cache). Walk around the gate and continue for 130 steps. You will come to a small cluster of small trees on the right of the road. The box is at the base of the trees. Please be sure all is tucked safely inside when you close the lid.