One of our favorite places to camp and/or visit has been Bandelier National Monument. My first trip here was in 1988 and I immediately fell in love with the land and the sky. On that and subsequent trips we saw many kinds of animals including coyotes, rabbits, wapiti, mule deer, black bears, ground, rock and Abert's squirrels, many birds (especially humming birds and ravens), diamond mining ants and many plants and wild flowers. During many visits I never saw a rattlesnake.
This past week while walking along a paved trail with my wife, daughter and her two cherubs, not far from the visitor center, my daughter spotted what turned out to be a Western Diamondback rattlesnake at the side of the trail. The snake was probably less than 18 inches long and was coiled up in some remaining sunlight.
This little guy began heading into the dry pine needles. We watched him go.
One of the park rangers identified the snake from my pictures. Apparently the black and white bands towards the end of the tail are characteristic the the Western Diamondback rattlesnake.
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