The second day had us hiking around Caprock Canyons State Park. It was beautiful! Red rock, deep blue sky, and patches of green.
Also, temps flirting with the 100s and rattlesnakes. Don't worry, there is plenty of warning before those photos below...
Roscoe is a high-maintenance hiker in the summer. Furry dude! We have to stop at least every 15 minutes to give him a drink break and rub cool water on his belly.
Spoiled pups.
^^ "i love hiking!" ^^
^^ another "roscoe" break ^^
What happened next was an answer to prayer. The trail turned from wide-open double-track down to brush-covered single-track and we felt impressed to have me lead the way with Greg and Roscoe following. Not a minute later I froze and bolted around.
"There's a snake!"
*** SNAKE PICTURES BELOW ***
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^^ camouflaged ^^
^^ that's a rattlesnake, right? ^^
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*** SNAKE PICTURES ABOVE ***
I wasn't about to tap the thing on the shoulder and ask if it had a rattle. I took my shaking legs and we started the march back to camp. Who needs to make it up to fern cave? Not us! I felt sick for almost an hour thinking of how bad that situation could have gone. If Roscoe had been up front, there's no way he would have avoided that snake. It was blocking the trail! Our dog is too curious and I doubt we would have seen it in time to hold him back. And we were at least 4 miles from our car and who knows how far from a vet.
It was scary!
We stuck to the wide trails after that. Despite Roscoe's protesting and fighting, there was a new rule that he had to hike sandwiched between us.
^^ not back yet. so hot. ^^
Afternoon crash post-hike!
^^ i love this tent ^^
^^ "don't mind me, just trying to sleep here" ^^
^^ me too ^^
^^ dinner! ^^
^^ so close, yet so far away ^^
The evening found us wandering down a trail created from an old railroad. It was straight and flat and there was supposed to be an old tunnel with tons of bats that fly out after sunset. So glorious hiking thru the wide-open plains during golden hour!
^^ hey cow! ^^
Are you ready? Another snake.
*** SNAKE PICTURES BELOW ***
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^^ definitely a rattlesnake ^^
^^ "kindly" asking the snake to move...with rocks ^^
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*** SNAKE PICTURES ABOVE ***
The snake went away, but I decided we no longer needed to see the bat cave. So we turned around just in time to race this sunset back to the car:
^^ walking the air mattress over to the electric outlet for more air... ^^
It was a busy day. We slept pretty soundly that night! And I tried not to dream of rattlesnakes.
Have a great day :-)
1 comment:
You are awesome! I was able to avoid all snake pictures and still enjoy your post!
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