Snake at My Feet Head
I've been railfanning for going on 19 years, and I have never run across a snake in all that time...until 24 May 2021. And here it is. I don't know what kind of snake it is, but it was ~3' long, did not have any rattles, and was mighty pissed at my presence.
I was walking in a field near Larkspur, CO, and I was looking at the skull of a deer that I was passing, wondering how it was that the lower jaw was perfectly removed and unhinged from the main skull when all of a sudden and without warning the ground right next to me began to move and hiss. Instinctively, I jumped away and at some point in mid-jump, I recognized that it was a snake.
I jumped down the hill in my reaction while the snake's head ran uphill. When I landed, I felt I was out of the strike zone, didn't hear a rattle, and realized the snake was not coming after me. Its head was coiled and its tongue was trying to figure out what I was. I snapped this photo (the two photos are the same, just cropped differently) then was on my way.
As the heart rate came down, I did some quick research. The snake had a triangular-shaped head, which I somewhat recalled typically meant the snake was venomous, but the only venomous snakes in Colorado are rattlers. So I don't know what this snake was, other than it wasn't a rattlesnake, but I gave that area a wide berth when I walked back out.
I've had a bear run at me at full tilt before, but that didn't freak me out nearly as badly as this encounter did! BTW, the bear got within 10-15' of me before it turned off the road I was standing on. My dad, who was around the bend in the road and who just took a shot at it, came running around the bend asking me if I saw the bear. I told him, yep, I got a real good look at it!
Snake at My Feet Head
I've been railfanning for going on 19 years, and I have never run across a snake in all that time...until 24 May 2021. And here it is. I don't know what kind of snake it is, but it was ~3' long, did not have any rattles, and was mighty pissed at my presence.
I was walking in a field near Larkspur, CO, and I was looking at the skull of a deer that I was passing, wondering how it was that the lower jaw was perfectly removed and unhinged from the main skull when all of a sudden and without warning the ground right next to me began to move and hiss. Instinctively, I jumped away and at some point in mid-jump, I recognized that it was a snake.
I jumped down the hill in my reaction while the snake's head ran uphill. When I landed, I felt I was out of the strike zone, didn't hear a rattle, and realized the snake was not coming after me. Its head was coiled and its tongue was trying to figure out what I was. I snapped this photo (the two photos are the same, just cropped differently) then was on my way.
As the heart rate came down, I did some quick research. The snake had a triangular-shaped head, which I somewhat recalled typically meant the snake was venomous, but the only venomous snakes in Colorado are rattlers. So I don't know what this snake was, other than it wasn't a rattlesnake, but I gave that area a wide berth when I walked back out.
I've had a bear run at me at full tilt before, but that didn't freak me out nearly as badly as this encounter did! BTW, the bear got within 10-15' of me before it turned off the road I was standing on. My dad, who was around the bend in the road and who just took a shot at it, came running around the bend asking me if I saw the bear. I told him, yep, I got a real good look at it!