The third annual Tarantula Festival brought visitors to the state’s southeastern town of La Junta over the weekend to witness the mating season of Colorado’s brown tarantula.
These two-toned creatures are known to walk around the grasslands of the region after dusk each September and October looking for a partner. But it was only until 2022 when the city decided to create a festival around this phenomenon that included tours of the nearby Comanche National Grassland.
The city’s tourism director, Pam Denahy, said additional bus tours were added for the two-day event after seeing how popular the tour was last year.
“Both nights of our tours were full at 75 people who were able to go out on the grassland in five buses with our tour guides and volunteers and researchers to spot tarantulas and learn about not only the tarantulas but the grassland,” Denahy said.
This year, the city also coordinated with local police and sheriff’s departments as well as the Colorado Department of Transportation and Colorado State Patrol to make sure visitors were going to the right location to see tarantulas.
Denahy said pulling over on county roads in the grassland is the best and safest option to see a tarantula.
The festival itself included food booths, arts and crafts vendors and an education pavilion. Nearby, the town’s only movie theater was fittingly playing Arachnophobia.
Denahy said while it's hard to estimate turnout numbers for the free event, signups for the bus tours have offered a glimpse into its growing popularity, thanks in part to word of mouth and more online information from the city. She’s heard about visitors coming not only from Denver, but outside the state and even outside the country, from places like Canada.
“We’re working really hard on the educational piece,” she said. “We want to make sure that people, when they do come to see the tarantulas, that they are doing it in a responsible and respectful way so we added a lot of information on our website of how to do that.”
Next year’s Tarantula Fest is already scheduled for Sept. 26-27.
More photos below.
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