Thomas Piepert, Associated Press

It's tarantula mating season on the Colorado plains, when male spiders scurry out of their burrows in search of a mate. Hundreds of arachnophiles flock to the small town of La Junta each year to watch them emerge in droves. Scientists, spider enthusiasts and curious Colorado families piled into buses just before dusk last weekend as tarantulas began to roam.

What do you get when you cross rodeo with skiing? An extreme — and quirky — winter sport called skijoring. It's a heart-pumping competition in which horses at full gallop tow skiers by rope over jumps and around obstacles as they try to lance suspended hoops with a baton. Every winter, thousands of people converge on the old Colorado mining town of Leadville to witness one of the most popular skijoring races in the country.

Every year, tens of thousands of people from around the world route their Valentines to the "Sweetheart City" to get a special inscription and the coveted Loveland postmark. The re-mailing tradition started nearly 80 years ago and is the largest of its kind in the world.

U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a conservative Republican who represents much of Colorado's rural eastern plains, says he won't seek a sixth term in Congress. The 64-year-old former prosecutor on Wednesday cited many in his party who refuse to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election and to condemn the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He was one of the eight Republicans who joined with Democrats to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in early October.