We were working in New Mexico and got the truck stuck off road. I sent the guys out to look for sticks and branches and stuff to try to get some traction. “Don’t pick up any snakes!” I joked (none of us were from there or used to the snakes). I turned around and 30 feet away was a good-sized stick. Took a few steps and realized it was a big rattle snake stretched out on the sand! Not having been around them I thought it was more cool to watch than something to be afraid of.
I have been where they supposedly are, but I have never encountered one. Years ago I walking a trail at the Golden Spike National Monument in Utah with my sons. They had signs up warning people to keep an eye out for rattlers. After a while, I was struck by the absolute silence out there, so I told my sons, “Stop. Listen.” Of course, they thought I had heard a rattler. Once I cleared that up, I asked them, “What do you hear?” They said, “Nothing.” “That’s right, I told them. Nothing.”