We made good time driving south - an hour and a half later we reached our destination, a farm owned by one of Matt's relatives. The sun was back, the wind was a small zephyr, and we were very much encouraged as we headed up the steep hill behind the house.

The hillside we were climbing had a southeastern exposure, and was lined with rocky outcrops and lots of large, wonderful flat rocks to lift up and peer under. There were plenty of small cedars up there too, and thorn bushes, making things scratchy and difficult at times.

"Milk!" Jim found the first snake. The Eastern Milksnakes here are beautiful with lots of reddish color in the blotches, probably owing to the Red Milks that range just to the west. I hadn't seen an Eastern Milk in a couple years, so I was happy to see any that might come our way this day.

"Milk!" said Matt.

"Timber!" said Jim, two seconds later. "Out in the open!"

The opaque Milksnake took a back seat to the prize tucked in the grass underneath a rock outcrop. I was stunned - here was the golden rattlesnake! The head was a beautiful mix of buckskin and pale yellows, and it glowed gold in the sunlight. For the front two-thirds of the serpent's body, dark chevrons played contrast to the light yellowish-brown ground color, with a dark russet vertebral stripe. The colors turned dark and then to black on the posterior third, and ended in a rattle with twelve segments.  What a beast!

We wanted to take some in situ photographs of the rattler before it decided to move. We took a few shots and Jeff grabbed some video. As luck would have it, there was a piece of dead grass crossing in front of the snake's eye, spoiling any picture. We attempted to snatch it away using snake tongs, but that was enough to get the snake crawling. We moved in to detain the animal before it could crawl in a hole.