No one will be watching us . . . why don't we do it in the road?

Two gopher snakes share an intimate moment on the Yellowstone River Trail, in the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone. They came as quite a surprise to us since the pattern on their skin looks like a rattlesnake when you're jumping backwards. However, they are in fact gopher snakes.

The lack of rattle on the tail of the one closest to us was a decisive, and reassuring identification. We assumed that the other snake was of the same species, since this tangle was "kinky" enough as is.

After a couple of minutes they untangled themselves and then went off to the left, one by one.

June 2008.