There was a 41 inch Rattle Snake killed in the storage area of our park a couple days ago and just today, three more were spotted by a group of ATVers from our park.
We also saw another Diamond Back (coon tail) Rattle Snake today. This guy wasn't very big, but he was extremely irate.
When we first saw him, he was stretched out on the gravel road enjoying the nice warm sun. When he sensed us, he started to crawl off, but we got to him before he got to the edge of the road. Ken stopped the Jeep, and quickly grabbed the hiking stick while I grabbed my cell phone (I forgot the good camera). Ken got near him and used the hiking stick to pitch (toss) the little guy back into the middle of the road. As soon as he landed, he coiled and shook his rattles warning us not to get too close. He was ready to strike if we were stupid enough to get close (we weren't).
I took several pictures, and then got back in Jeep so we could get closer to him. He sure was not a happy camper!! The pictures above are from the Jeep because we just couldn't get a good shot of him any other way. No, we did not kill him, we left him on the road and alive....
The road we were on is just north of Apache Junction in an area called Bull Dog Canyon. It is a locked area and controlled by the Mesa Forest Service. Hikers can go in without a pass, but motorized vehicles have to have a pass (free) and must stay on well marked (primative) roads. We had the permits (and combo) to get in through the locked gate, and had a great time traveling the sometimes very rough road. The drive is only 7 miles long, but can take a long time depending on how good your clearance is. We had no problems, but the road did get pretty steep and rocky in places. We stopped along the way many times and found eleven caches. At one knoll (hill top) Ken quit searching for a cache because there was a nest of bees and he didn’t want to tangle with them.
Again, these pictures were taken with a cell phone, so the quality is not that good, but you get an idea of what the area looks like.
Today was supposed to be 74 degrees, and I think it got pretty close to that, but the breeze was still cool. In the canyon, it was warmer because there wasn't much of a breeze.
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