Santa Rosa Plateau Tarantula Hike

Every year our scout troop goes to Sanat Rosa Plateau during mating season (September-October).The boys had football so we got there late and actually went on our own hike. We saw 5 tarantulas, lots of bones that were revealed from the recent fires and a few random plants growing amidst the charred ground.

Really cool spider web.

Bones

A femur

Vertebrate

Coyote Scat

My little hikers. Jaileigh decided to stay home with her dad.

A skull. Possibly a rat or gopher. It had two large front teeth for digging.

Our first tarantula

A tarantula burrow

Anthony was the only one brave enough to hold it.

It really liked Anthony's hair. It was either like a nest or like another furry spider.

I had to get it out of his hair and it got mad at me. It bit my hand. It was like a bee sting and even bled a little. For the next week my hand was really, really sore but I didn't have any swelling, bruising or marks. 

The 2nd one.

3rd one.

Jake and I didn't see the 4th one. Just the other kids because they ran off. 

Jake swears there is a spider skeleton in this picture so this counted as #5 for him. hahhaha