While in the Badlands National Park, we hiked several trails. On the Castle Trail, we saw some interesting land formations (tables? buttes?)
Ann wanted to climb on top of one of these interesting formations, and we eventually found a couple that were relatively close to the trail and not too tall so we decided to chem 'em out.
Ann was ahead of me and when she got close, she saw that the first one was surrounded by cacti all along the upper ledge, so she decided to try the second one instead. We soon found out that she had made a very wise choice.
Ann was ahead of me and when she got close, she saw that the first one was surrounded by cacti all along the upper ledge, so she decided to try the second one instead. We soon found out that she had made a very wise choice.
After staying back to take some shots of Ann on the second formation, I walked closer to check them out myself and found something shocking. There was a rattlesnake climbing up the side of the first formation!!! (The one that had all the cacti around it.)
Fortunately, the snake was in a vulnerable position on the side of the formation, which made it easy to observe and film. I don't like snakes. Even garden snakes make me nervous. So when I saw this one and heard it rattle, I was a little scared. But, not to scared to get close enough to record on my camera.
After leaving this spot, we kept our eyes peeled and stomped our feet as we walked along he trail to scare away any more slithering friends. Regardless, the park was beautiful, as you can see in the "Badlands, SD" slideshow in the column on the left.
