Friday night Laurie and I went to an evening campground program at our campground. At the beginning of the program the ranger goes over other programs in the park for the next couple of days (they are all free). One caught my attention, at 8 am there was going to be a bird walk at French Creek. The person leading the walk happened to be in the building (not doing that evenings program, just listening). After the program was over I asked him what birds he expected to see. We talked for a bit and then I left.
The next morning we had to pack and organize our gear for the plane ride back to Boston. When we got done it was only 7:50. Laurie told me I could go on the bird walk. The meeting place,conveniently enough was three minutes from our campsite.
Besides the ranger (young guy about 20) and myself the only other people were a couple in their mid-fifties from Iowa. We didn't make it far down the trail because we saw a lot of good birds. Only 200 yards from the car we heard a bird of prey. As we walked off trail to find it a snake rattled. The guy from Iowa heard it first. We all backed off until it could be located.
I was pretty excited to see it! The guy from Iowa had a long walking stick. He pushed the grass away from the rattlers face so I could get pictures of it. I was only about five feet away as I was snapping pics. His wife got a couple shots too, but she stayed on the other side of me. I'd say the snake was around 3 feet long. I loved it.All vacation I kept debating whether or not I wanted to see a rattle snake. I kept saying I hoped I saw one on the last day. Can you imagine seeing one the first day and then doing any off trail hiking? Well, I got my wish, last day there, thirty minutes before the vacation was to conclude, I see a prairie rattlesnake. Magnificent
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