It’s about prime time for one of Colorado’s most curious, notorious wildlife events.
If you’re thinking of the elk rut, think smaller. And eight-legged.
But yes, just like the bulls go looking for love — famously around Estes Park — so too do southeast Colorado’s tarantulas.
It’s not a “migration” that plays out around La Junta, as commonly referred to, but rather indeed a mating ritual. Mid-September is known as peak viewing, when the furry male arachnids go looking for females in their burrows across Comanche National Grassland — that prairie expanse sprawling 443,000 acres, largely undisturbed, prime for the ladies that stay close to their burrows for life, sometimes more than 20 years.
The younger bachelors are often interrupted — often gravely — when it comes time to skitter across highways. Colorado 109 and 350 are popular drives for watchers, who should be careful of freight truck traffic as they pull over for pictures.
The tarantulas are most active around sunset; viewing is recommended a bit before 6 p.m. Activity lasts through much of October, before the freeze.