here rattlesnake, rattlesnake, come here !

Well, I got back safely from the Thunder Basin National Grassland and the Devil's Tower National Monument, northeast Wyoming, and Ft. Robinson State Park, northwest corner of Nebraska. My friend, Mike, and I drove up to Toadstool Park Monday evening and as we came out of the park, on the road we saw something like a stick. It was this prairie rattler! She was about 2 feet long and though I've seen several rattlesnakes in my life, this was the most coiled up one I've seen, though at the time of the photo she was less coiled. Two days later, I stupidly took a 5 or 6 mile hike by myself in the grasslands and never saw any snake. But the ranger for Nebraska parks dept. told me he had seen 2 rattlesnakes that same morning, about 3 miles away!