The Making of Rattlesnake Road

Warning....if you are planning to visit this summer~ you might want to skip this blog.

It rained tonight. The clouds rolled over the canyon behind us bringing a wonderful heavy but short rain. When I tucked Katie in for bed she looked at me and said, "Mom, I am so glad it rained tonight ~ good for the crops." That a girl, Katie!

We all woke up bright and early and set out to walk up the wash, usually a trail of rocks cut out from water that flows down from the mountain. NEVER in all the years we have been here have we ever seen it running, but this year, the water is running like crazy! The dog, of course followed as she usually does, and the two cats actually came too. It looked like a scene from The Incredible Journey, all of those animals sticking together walking down the gravel road setting out for adventure.

As we set out, Katie actually found another shed antler. Unbelievable! That girl has got an eye for nature and she is just so in tune with things. Read on and you will get the full meaning of what I am saying.

Anyway, the kids and I had a great time splashing and throwing rocks. We sang as we hiked, Hunter mostly, singing a song about rocks, Katie making ones up as we went along and Ben just joining in at the last moment. Although it sounds very sweet, it actually most likely stems from "Safety School" - what I have termed our little morning lessons about being smart in Nature. Today's little golden rules were 1) Always stick with a buddy 2) Hike loud. This way you will scare off anything lurking around, like a mountain lion or rattlesnake and 3) Call "HELP" when you need it but at no other times.

The sun was high in the sky and although we had started out with it being rather cloudy, the sun was shining on us now so we headed back to the cabin for lunch. We had lunch at Jesse's Restaurant, the name which Katie created long ago at our little play kitchen at home. I was the cook, Katie was my daughter, Hunter was a cowboy who lived in the mountains hunting all day, and Ben was his horse. Katie and I put on our aprons and served them lunch and Hunter was so into playing, telling us stories of his adventures, his time spent traveling through the mountains and of all the animals he shot, he even offered to shoot a buck for us and let us just have the meat for our restaurant. Of course, Jesse and I were pleased to hear this! :)

Scott and Katie went up to check on generator at the pump house on the 4 wheeler before dinner. There is a little road up to the pump house. We all had been on it earlier today, playing tag, collecting rocks, just running around.

The story I heard about the trip up to the pump house goes something like this...

Katie leans into Scott telling him she sees a snake.

Scott is trying to see it, looking all around and still cannot see what Katie is talking about. In his head, he is thinking it is going to be a blow snake, whatever THAT is, but has seen those up there before. (thanks for letting the rest of us know that!) So, he puts the 4 wheeler in reverse and can see this snake slithering away. Really the only thing he can see of it IS THE RATTLE!!!!

SO when he saw it was a rattlesnake, they stopped and watching it for a second. In Scott's brain, he is thinking to himself that he has a rather short window here and needs to decide what he is going to do about this. So he decides it is better if he tries to kill it than let it slither off into the woods. He tells Katie to stay on the 4 wheeler and picks up two big rocks. He whips it at the snake and it lands hard onto its back and he must have sort of stunned it. Then he threw the second rock and he thinks he actually hit it on the head. After that, he just keeps whipping rocks at it. He said that he could see its fangs and it was just sitting there with its mouth wide open striking at a rock in front of it!!!! Yikes!

Katie is about 20 yards back calling out if she can come and see what is going on. Scott is telling her to stay back. He's just nailing the snake with rocks and can see it is still moving but not really in any direction. So he tells Katie to find a stick and bring it to him. She does. He jabbed it with the stick several times. Then lifts it out onto the road and pins its head down using the stick and gets out his knife and cuts its head off!!!!

I am at home with the boys making dinner. I hear the 4 wheeler come pulling up and Hunter comes tearing into the house yelling how dad needs me for something. I tell him I am making dinner. It's important he says. I step out onto the deck and see them all standing there, Scott saying that he has good news and bad news. I am thinking there was an accident, Katie fell off the back of the 4 wheeler. Then he says, "Well, we had our first encounter with a rattlesnake but we killed it." Then he steps aside and I can see the snake laying all the front of the 4 wheeler STILL MOVING!!! Scott still smiles and laughs when he thinks about what my face looked like. Can I just say I did not know he already cut its head off!? All I hear is rattlesnake and all I see it a snake still moving!!

So, of course, there was the story of this which includes a lot of hovering around the snake, some freaking out on my part as the thing is still moving and then the next step. How to skin the snake, keeping the rattle attached. It was one of the creepiest things I have seen in a long time....Scott is pulling the skin back off from where its head once was and the other end half is still moving. I just had to walk away.

So now that road up to the pump house is called Rattlesnake Road. Ya all can come by and see the snake head on a stick in the tree.

We researched how to preserve it and right now it's soaking in a special little anti-freeze cocktail.

Someone up there is looking out for us. That was EXACTLY the same place Katie and I had veered off for a little hike, where the kids and I were this afternoon, a road we are on all the time! Certainly makes us think about all the adventures we DO NOT want to have. It amazes me that all this time we have been talking about snakes, Katie did not even know it was poisonous until they were leaving. I guess that just goes to show how, as adults, you just think your kids are "getting it" and then maybe they are really not.

I told Scott tonight I was nervous about running in the early morning because that is when I think the mountain lions are out. Ya know, been out scavenging all night and now are headed back to their den. He laughed and told me that the chances of that were "so slim". My comment was, "Ya right, just like the chances of seeing a rattlesnake."

He really did not have much to say about that.

I think it might be time for a little scotch.

PS>Scott has a great video of some of this we will have to see if we can upload. Stay tuned...