Showing posts with label ute lake state park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ute lake state park. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Parting Gifts from New Mexico: Tarantulas


"They're big. They're hairy. And it is the season for them to copulate."


On my last weekend in New Mexico, I received beautiful parting gifts. This is about one of them.

On Sunday, my very last day in New Mexico, as I drove from Ute Lake State Park to the Texas border, I saw eight tarantulas. Eight. Most of them on a 10-mile length of road.

The entire year in New Mexico to this point, I'd seen nine tarantulas. The entire year. And on this one day, I saw eight.


Tarantula on side of road, near Ute Lake State Park, New Mexico


Thank you, New Mexico.

(And I saw two more in Texas.)

So my New Mexico total: 17 tarantulas.

The quote at the top of the page is from this article about the ongoing mating season in New Mexico.


Tarantula. Credit: DesertUSA