Badlands, South Dakota: Our First Rattlesnake

Secretly, way down deep, Mary Lynn wanted to see a rattlesnake. Just not too close! I have said to her many times I wanted to see a rattlesnake so that I could capture it in a photo. She always said she didn't want to see one at all but I knew she secretly wanted to see one.

Well this evening we saw a rattlesnake and were ~ 3 feet away.

First let me tell you why we did not move today as scheduled. When we called to get service on the RV they said they could accommodate us late today or early Wednesday. Not knowing for sure if they could service the RV and if there would still be time to get to Devil's Tower in Wyoming today, we decided to stay here until Wednesday am. Then we'll take the RV in and after it's serviced, we head off to Devil's Tower, which is a very cool destination.

We planned to drive to Rapid City to take care of a couple of errands and then planned to head over to Badlands National Park. We knew we wanted to spend more time there since the other evening we only scratched the surface of this other worldly park. We timed it so we could accomplish our chores and get to the Badlands around 4 pm. Time to explore and to see another sunset in this strange alien environment.

Everything worked out as planned as we arrived at the park at exactly 4 pm MST. We saw a lot more of the park, stopping at most of the scenic overlooks. Around Cedar Pass there is a great overlook that has a loop you can hike to the top of a bluff and then circle around and back down to the parking area. Not too far in distance, just a lot of steps to climb up and then down 300 feet in elevation.

We hiked to the top and enjoyed the sunset, which was pretty good. Not spectacular but pretty good. We resolved to try and stop whatever we are doing when the sun sets and go out and enjoy the view whenever possible. We have been doing that a good bit however I would like to make that a regular daily event.

After watching the sunset and just sitting atop this bluff enjoying the immensity of the landscape and the tranquility of the evening we started back down to the parking area.

About halfway down MLA is walking in front of me and as she goes past a hilly section to her right I hear a faint rattle. She had just walked past this rattlesnake about 2 feet off the path. He was maybe 2 1/2 feet long and by counting the rattle section appears to have shed his skin ~10 times. Not as thick as some I've seen in pictures or the zoo.

Any way, I'm snapping pictures as quick as I can, trying to get a good shot in the fading light without getting too close.

Off course, by now MLA has come back, standing behind me as a screen, and she's shouting in my ear "Where is it?! Where is it!?".

Then he drops onto the path from the hill and is now plainly visible on the stone dust path plus he's shaking his rattle pretty good. MLA's now screaming (in no particular order) "You're too close", "Get a picture", "Get back, here he comes", "Get a picture", "Where did he go", etc.

Good thing the snake could not sense her excitement. He never really coiled up to strike; he just wanted to be left alone, which we did in pretty quick order. We were like a couple of kids; in fact we called our kids right away to share our excitement with them... too cool.

We drove to the town of Wall, which BTW is the home of Wall Drug, the drug store that advertises on billboards for hundreds of miles before you get to the town. As we sat at a diner for dinner we reviewed the pictures of the rattlesnake. Our waitress thought we were nuts however the people in the booths beside us thought it was pretty cool.

In any case, another great day in the Badlands of South Dakota. The Black Hills and Badlands area of South Dakota are not to be missed; do whatever you have to do to get here.

See Ya!