Arizona Diamondback

Tia was invited to go to Disneyland with her friend for spring break so we promised the boys that we would have some fun at home too. We decided to go to Arthur Pack park on Saturday by our house to see the new renovations. The park was not finished yet so we found a dirt road to see if we could find some coyotes or javelinas in the desert and do some exploring. We didn't see anything except some cool rocks so Jonathan and I decided to see if we could find a gold nugget or two to pay for his college or some colorful rocks for our fish tank.


Jonathan seemed to throw every rock he picked up and I am glad we didn't look too far off the road. The palo verde tree to the right of Jonathan is where we found our little friend.

This guy was about 3 to 4 feet long and perfectly camouflaged in the sand. We didn't see him until I looked at a rock about 6 feet away by the road. His rattle was black and white and he seemed a little relaxed just off the road coiled under this tree. Jonathan ran to the car and jumped in to tell Mom of the snake we found. Ruth hates snakes and of course would only look from the window and even then, it was hard to get her even next to the window to look.

We went to the Desert Museum last year and watched a snake show about rattle snakes and the guy doing the presentation said that most snake bites occur when a certain profile type messes around with them. He said they acutually keep records of the victims that come into the trauma centers from snake bites. Here is the average profile; Male with tattoos and piercings, ages 18 to 25, tank tops and drunk. Although I don't fit the profile I might end up a statistic some day because of my curious nature!