Scenes From the 2026 Pacific Grove Butterfly Parade
School children, monarch wings, and a favorite Pacific Grove tradition along Pine Avenue
The annual Pacific Grove Butterfly Parade brought plenty of color and community spirit. School children representing their different grades marched through downtown in butterfly wings, costumes, hats, signs, and all kinds of creative outfits celebrating Pacific Grove’s connection to the monarch butterfly.
Photographing a Pacific Grove Tradition
This was my second year in a row photographing the Pacific Grove Butterfly Parade (see 2025’s parade). It was an unusually warm Saturday for the parade this year, making it feel like the middle of summer! What is the Butterfly Parade about? It is mostly elementary school students representing their class grade in a different theme costume marching through downtown PG with their class banner accompanied by their teacher. There is of course a marching band as well, and the parade concludes with Pacific Grove High School classes of 50 years or more! So banners flew from the class of 1976 all the way to 1971.
I am a Pacific Grove resident by choice and am always glad to be able to bring my camera to these events, by walking to them, and creating and sharing a photo record of what it felt like to be part of Pacific Grove on that particular day.
2026 Pacific Grove Butterfly Parade Photo Gallery
Scenes from school groups making their way through downtown Pacific Grove
Download Pacific Grove Butterfly Parade Photos
I photographed many moments throughout the parade, and I am happy to share these as a community resource.
If you see your child, family member, school group, or someone you know in the photographs, you are welcome to download the images for personal use.
The complete gallery is available for families and community members to view and download. Share the gallery with anyone who missed the parade! And if you like these kinds of community photos, I send a photo newsletter about twice a month about what a professional photographer in Pacific Grove gets up to that features four new photo stories each newsletter. You can sign up at the bottom of the page.
Photographs from the 2026 Pacific Grove Butterfly Parade celebrating one of Pacific Grove’s favorite community traditions along Pine Avenue.