Braiden Healy, visiting from Huntington Beach, delights in feeding a butterfly watermelon. Photo: Cid Castillo

At the culmination of the Idyllwild Nature Center’s “Butterfly Daze,” hundreds of Monarch butterflies are set free into the forest. Residents and visitors are first allowed to view the butterflies up close inside tents. Photo: Cid Castillo

Nature Center staffer Jyoti Kintz holds a Monarch butterfly so one of the many visitors to the Idyllwild Nature Center can capture a close-up photograph. Photo: Cid Castillo