Snakes on a Trail

While out on a walk recently, my friend and I came around a bend and stopped short at the sight of two large--as in four- or five-foot-long--snakes stretched out across the trail. We'd seen rattlesnakes there before and assumed that's what they were. Not wanting to try tiptoe around them (snakes are way too quick and bendy) we stood for a moment discussing our options.

Then, using our Sherlock Holmes-ian powers of observation, we noticed a few things. The snakes' heads were smaller. Their skin, although generally the same colors as a rattler's, was shinier. And, lo and behold, they had no rattles. (Okay, so not Sherlock Holmes's best day.) They also didn't seem to mind moving on out of the way as we approached. Rattlesnakes tend to be a lot less cooperative.

When I got home and described to my husband what we'd seen, he told me they were bull snakes. My friend's husband told her the same thing. How did they know this? Is it a guy thing? I have lived in Colorado my whole life without seeing one. But now I suppose I could scratch it off my bucket list, if I had one. No doubt that a bull snake sighting would be somewhere way down the list, maybe between eating a cricket and seeing that movie where the snakes get loose on the plane. (What was it called again?) Oh, well. We get what we get. 

Bull a.k.a Gopher Snake

Rattlesnakes