So we went for a walk in the desert just outside Scottsdale in a place called Lost Dog Wash.
It was my wife and I, Mollie, Jessica and Jason. Jason, Jessica’s boyfriend, grew up, for the most part, in Scottsdale. We had Shiloh the dog with us.
In all that time living there he never so much as saw a rattlesnake.
We walked into the desert for about twenty minutes.
It was beautiful in a somewhat stark way. I mean, I have seen a lot of desert. I have been to Death Valley, seen stunning mesas and the Grand Canyon.
This didn’t have quite that jaw-dropping level of ‘wow’ factor.
But all in all it was a very nice desert, and not all that hot, which is a real plus in my book.
There were even some flowers blooming.
We went as far as it seemed fun to go and turned back around.
We had only retraced our steps for a few yards, when Mollie, our fourteen-year-old, suddenly said, in a very calm voice, “Snake!” She stepped quickly back, and sure enough, stretched out across the trail was a rather large rattlesnake. She had almost stepped right on it.
Remember, Jason, who had lived here for years, had never seen one. I have seen quite a few, including that young one I found in our house last year… remember that story? The weird thing about this story is that most of us had already passed the snake. I don’t know if the snake crawled out after they went past, or if they had stepped right over it. The dog sure didn’t notice it, because she noticed the one in our hose and wouldn’t get too close to it.
I tried to get a picture, but the snake gave a half-hearted rattle and slithered away. I think it was still warming itself up and was a little sluggish.
So I guess my point is that when you are in the desert, you should always look where you are stepping. I already knew that lesson. Because when I was about thirteen, my family went to Death Valley. We parked beside the road for a rest, and I walked twenty feet into the desert for the very first time. I kicked over a rock and a very large scorpion came charging out straight at me. I backed up into a cactus.
You know what? Just stay the hell away from deserts. It isn’t worth it.
Pouring My Art Out 
You’d never get me near anywhere where there are snakes! I pull my legs up if I see one on TV!
You can levitate???
What, you can’t?
Not for very long.
Your poor wife!
HA!
My wife is scared to death of snakes. I won’t let her read this post.
Glad I didn’t get the picture.
LOL Glad she wasn’t bitten!! When we lived in BC we hiked a lot in the mountains. I would take a hiking pole with me and tap the ground ahead me constantly, they feel the vibration and it warns them. We ran into quite a few. We were lucky the dog never got bit as he was often off leash. There were a couple times where Hubby and I went alone just looking for rattlers where we were told they were in abundance…that was risky and nerve wracking. I found one huge one on that outing.
They are not to be played with.
no they are not!
Here we go agreeing again.
damn
I was in the Arizona dessert a handful of springs and never saw anything blooming. I was always told that it just wasn’t the right time and it was too bad because it would be beautiful when it was blooming. Snakes and scorpions are not okay.
Exactly.
Nice photos of spring in Arizona!
We just left Arizona this morning to return to Canada. We only saw a couple scorpions, and no rattlesnakes, fortunately. The desert near us has been beautiful too – lots of things blooming.
Summer will be a different matter.