To continue with the Halloween week theme, tonight I am presenting an image that represents something that nearly became a horror story. Not that I am considering any of these spiders, snakes or any native creatures I photograph to be scary at all. It just happens that I have several of these “spooky” critters lined up in the photo queue at the right time, so to speak.
This nearly became a horror story for me because I was literally one step away from standing on this snake. Casey and I were walking the the Lost Valley Trail at Weldon Spring Conservation Area in St. Charles County, looking for late season caterpillars. On the way back to the car, not far from the parking lot, I just happened to catch the outline of this snake lying across my path before taking a step that would have put my sandal-clad foot down right on top of it.
It tuned out to be a really chill snake, allowing us to photograph it where it laid. I tried to coax it into a coiled position with a stick but it instantly retreated into a burrow underneath some leaf litter just off the trail.
As I mention frequently, I absolutely love this area. It is so rich and diverse. It has beautiful hills and forest structure and lies a mere thirty minutes from our house.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 