While Coloradans flock to view fall colors and the elk rut in Estes Park, now is also the time for a similarly unforgettable natural phenomenon on the state’s often overlooked southeast plains.

This one might get you more in the Halloween spirit.

Now through much of October, tarantulas can be found skittering across highways through otherwise undisturbed prairie of Comanche National Grassland outside La Junta. On Friday and Saturday, downtown La Junta will host the second annual Tarantula Fest, complete with a parade, merchants, food trucks and tours.

The national grassland’s unplowed fields are just right for the burrowed homes of female tarantulas, which stay put for several years. And this time of year is just right for males to go searching for them.

This is indeed the spiders’ mating season — not any “migration” suggested by some headlines.

Adds Visit La Junta’s website: “If you have seen headlines about ‘thousands of tarantulas’ or ‘waves of tarantulas’ marching across southeast Colorado every fall, you might have the wrong idea.”

But if you’re in the right place at the right time, your chances are good.

The right time? Before sunset, between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., ideally on a warm day that’s not windy.

The right place? Visit La Junta recommends highways 109, 350, 10 and county roads in between.

The tourism association website addresses another misconception: “Despite their large size, tarantulas pose little hazard to humans.” Even so, local experts suggest “that you do not harass the spiders by handling them or disturbing their nesting hole. Simply enjoy observing and photographing the tarantulas as they make their annual trek in search of a female.”

For freight trucks and other traffic on the highways, you’ll want to “pull as far off the roadway as possible or find a turnout or intersection,” the website adds.

To stop for a picnic or short hike with the potential for a tarantula sighting, Visit La Junta recommends Vogel Canyon close to town.