Tarantula Hikes

Years ago, when Mom was out visiting us in our old house, we went on one of our favorite walks up a hill to take in the view. Summertime and early fall hikes here are bone dry, along trails that cut through knee high grass, manzanita, and under lumps of valley oaks. On that walk with Mom, we came across a rather large, brown tarantula scurrying in the grass. I later found out that they're not uncommon out here. Still, I didn't realize they were like locusts but on a seven year cycle. They are apparently so populous and popular that the park service organizes tarantula hikes.

"A lot of people come just to see the tarantulas," said Dan Stefanisko, supervising ranger at the park. "Everyone knows when tarantula season is."

Personally, when you can hear the eight individual footsteps of a spider as it walks by you, I'm staying clear no matter how undeserved its bad reputation is.