Rob calls me St Kathryn of Assisi

Eye to eye with a Striped Whipsnake

So, while I was walking along in some crazy wash or another, a second beautiful Striped Whipsnake modeled for me. Seriously. He stopped right where he was, allowed me to pull my camera out and set it to macro and slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y, lower my hand down to his eye level to get a series of photos of him at mad close range. Inch and a half from lens to nose. Ranger Rob (Mouse Victor of previous post) loves snakes as much as I do, and he was speechless when I showed him yet another close-close-close-up of this reptile. He swears that nobody can get that close to this species, as they have no patience for humans. But… this is the second one that let me. 

Striped Whipsnake

snake in the cheatgrass (click to enlarge)

My hiking partner ahead of me stepped right over it, unaware of its presence. It was well-camouflaged, but something tipped me off; I quickly set my camera to macro and got this shot. What a sweet snake to pose for me  in Clover Canyon
and let my lens get an inch or two from its face. I’ve not had one that un-perturbable before. Twenty-four inches of loveliness! It disappeared in the blink of an eye.