My walk of near death on Saturday evening....

[OFRD_GRL]

So Saturday evening I went for a walk with my fiancee and his kids... There is a wildlife conservation place right outside our home pretty much. We ran across a combination of 8 garter snakes & what i believe to be bull snakes?

They were all hanging on the pathway and the birds were attacking them (most were babies) so I moved them into the grass.

Then we literally tripped over a western diamondback rattlesnake.. HOLY COW I almost pooped my pants.

It was definitely a pretty large adult. It's rattle was huge and it was pretty large itself. Thank goodness he didn't strike since we literally did trip on it. He/she coiled up and hissed rather fiercely, and rattled like mad. Cool lookin snake, we're really lucky he didn't show us his cool tricks LOL.

[Fallguy]

Sneaky little buggers, huh?

Glad all of you are ok.

[OFRD_GRL]

I dunno if sneaky is the right word I'm sure he was in plain sight, we just happened to be engrossed in conversation LOL.

Needless to say after that we paid a little closer attention. Didn't help it was at dusk so feeding time for all those guys.

[mainbutter]

As venomous snakes go, rattlers tend to be a bit more camo'd than, say, brilliantly colored eyelash vipers. I'm glad you didn't get hurt, I've been in very similar situations more times than I can count, and once is too many for me!

I have stepped literally on top of cottonmouths, tripped on copperheads, and stepped over/in front of/within striking distance of plenty of hots without realizing it, and then seeing the snake later. I'm sure it has happened plenty of times without EVER seeing the snake and knowing it.

I think it goes to show that many snakes, especially venomous snakes, have a bad reputation that they don't deserve, and that they certainly don't want to have to use a defensive strike.

I'm a little jealous, though I'm sure the experience was scary. I still have yet to see my first rattler in the wild!

[OFRD_GRL]

It was a very cool snake, and yes he definitely was WELL camo'd.

I agree, that these snakes would MUCH rather be left alone with their rattle than have to strike in defense (vs for food). He had PLENTY of opportunity and gave PLENTY of warning and still never even struck out once.

[dc4teg]

just think how many times you have steped right besides hots and not even relized it

[OFRD_GRL]

Im sure its a bazillian times.. Wish I would have seen them too, gotten pics even.

[jeffh231979]

HERE IS A PIC OF MY WESTERN DIAMOND BACK!!!

[OFRD_GRL]

awww its cute

[Wh00h0069]

Glad to hear that he didn't stike. I bet it was cool to see one in the wild though. I have always thought that rattlesnakes were one of the coolest snakes.