Tarantula Fest
Join us in October 2023 for the next Fall Tarantula Fest.
Come to the Coe Park Tarantula Fest and rub elbows (so to speak) with some of our fuzzy, friendly eight-legged guests of honor. The event is held at the headquarters campground, which has breathtaking views across the ridges and canyons of the backcountry.
- Take a leisurely nature walk with a volunteer naturalist and search for tarantulas
- Enjoy exhibits of wildlife and the natural world around us.
- Hang out at our kids' activities table and create Tarantula Fest keepsakes
- Tarantulas and other spiders on display
- Take a leisurely hike with a volunteer to look for tarantulas in the wild
- Can you toss the bean bag into the Tarantula hole?
- Learn about some of the animals that live in Coe
- See live birds of prey and other local wildlife presented by the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center (WERC)
- Learn about snakes & hold one if you wish
- See the inside of a real bee hive
- Learn how to geocache and go on a guided walk to look for treasures
- Try your hand at roping a steer
- Make your own planter box and plant some seeds
- And more ...
Food
Hamburgers, veggie burgers, and hot dogs will be available for prepurchase. All meals will be served with chips, cookies, and lemonade.
Burgers will be $10, hot dogs $8. Tarantula Fest Meal Orders are Closed.
Parking
Admission to the festival is free; however, there is a parking fee for day use of $8 per car (senior rate for 62+ is $7). Please carpool to save yourselves some money and help us conserve parking space.
Coe Ranch Visitor Center
The Visitor Center at Coe Park is open every weekend throughout the year, and it's often open on Fridays and Mondays, especially during the busy months of spring. It is located about 13 miles from Highway US 101 on East Dunne Avenue east of Morgan Hill.
The building is staffed by park rangers and volunteers who can give you information about the park and help you plan backcountry outings.
In 1953, Sada Coe Robinson bequeathed her beloved Pine Ridge Ranch as a parkland dedicated to the memory of her father. In 1971, Sada funded the design and construction of the Visitor Center, which has served the public well for over 25 years. During those years, however, the park has grown immensely in size (from 12,221 to almost 87,000 acres) and in popularity. For more history on Pine Ridge Ranch, see Pine Ridge Ranch - The Beginning.
Getting There
Coe Park is in the Inner Coast Ranges east of Morgan Hill, a town about 15 miles south of San Jose on U.S. Highway 101.
Highway 101 has three Morgan Hill exits. The middle one, East Dunne Avenue, is the one you take to get to the park. Heading south on 101, take the exit, turn left at the stop light, and cross over 101. Heading north on 101, take the exit and turn right.
You'll be heading east and climbing into the hills through residential areas for the first three miles. At the top of the first ridge of hills, when you come to a Y in the road, look for a sign that says "Henry W. Coe State Park, 10 miles." You'll bear right at the Y.
The road crosses a bridge and follows alongside Anderson Reservoir for a ways. Then it turns into a narrow, winding, scenic mountain road.
Note: If you're going to be driving a large mobile home or pulling a trailer, keep in mind that the road to the park has narrow, almost one-lane sections and several tight hairpin turns and blind curves. If you're used to navigating narrow, winding roads and you drive cautiously, you shouldn't have any problems. However, if you've had little experience with such roads, you may want to reconsider your plans.
For passenger cars, Coe Park is about a 30-minute drive from Highway 101.
