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Box Canyon Road, California
By the time we got to Mecca, it was starting to get dark. Still, we were able to drive most of the way down Box Canyon Rd with enough light to see. It was so beautiful. There were giant walls of rock for miles and miles.
We were disappointed when the darkness came and we could no longer oo and ah over the scenery, but our disappointment soon gave way to excitement. I saw what appeared to be a snake in the road and went into the left lane to avoid it.
"Alex, I think that was a snake," I said.
Alex insisted I go back so we could check it out. I didn't want to accidentally run over it while I was backing up, so I backed up in the left lane, very slowly. There had been no traffic at all on this road and I hoped it stayed that way.
Once past the snake, we could see it clearly in the headlights. He was kind of dark and very pretty with three black rings at the end of his tail. He was about three or four feet long. We couldn't tell exactly what kind of snake he was, but we were thinking he was a rattlesnake.
He started turning and slithering toward the side of the road. I pulled up beside him and told Alex to roll down his window so he could get a good look. He rolled it down and went to look out and then we heard the rattle!
My heart started racing and I hit the gas pedal hard. Alex said it gave him chills and he was still getting chills nearly five hours later. I told him I could be nominated for a Darwin Award for telling him to roll down his window. That was just plain stupid.
We both agreed, though, that seeing that snake up close and personal, in the wild, was extremely satisfying. Never had we felt anything close to that when we saw one in a zoo. Soon after, on I-10, we saw a kit fox on the side of the road. He was standing so still, you would have thought he was stuffed and he was looking right at us!
next - Blythe, California
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