So many alpacas! SO MANY ALPACAS!

The middle east may have its camels, which are admittedly pretty awesome, but here in the Americas we have llamas. And also alpacas, which are kind of like mini-llamas. Unlike llamas, though, alpacas are not for carrying things; specifically, they are bred for their hair, which is a lot like...

By Jef Otte

April 28, 2011

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "12017618",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17242653",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261320",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261321",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

The middle east may have its camels, which are admittedly pretty awesome, but here in the Americas we have llamas. And also alpacas, which are kind of like mini-llamas. Unlike llamas, though, alpacas are not for carrying things; specifically, they are bred for their hair, which is a lot like sheep's wool. And although their native home is the Andean steppes, they're pretty popular up here in these United States, particularly as homemade fiber-arts like knitting make a popular comeback -- and tomorrow, Denver will become the epicenter of that popularity for the weekend with the Great Western Alpaca Show, which will bring over 1,200 alpacas to our fine city. Oh, did you not hear that? We said 1,200 alpacas.

Starting tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. at the National Western Complex, the Alpaca Show will be three solid days of serious, serious alpacas, featuring workshops on everything from purchasing your first alpaca (which we will definitely be at) to alpaca training, plus an alpaca art show (that would be photographs and drawings of alpacas), fiber arts displays and, of course, a straight-up shitload of alpacas. And the best part? It's all free.

The Alpaca Show is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m tomorrow and Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday; plan out your whole weekend with the full schedule of events. And now, because alpacas are so awesome, here's are a bunch of photos of alpacas:

Follow us on Twitter!

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Westword has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.