Rattlesnake warning

[Okanagan]

Warning sign at the scenic overlook off I-90 above the Columbia River near Vantage, WA.  This is less than five miles from The Gorge Ampitheatre, an outdoor music venue famous in the Northwest for country western and rock concerts.




Columbia River and the "town" of Vantage in the photo below.

[FinsnFur]

The sign alone would be enough to keep me in the truck

[Hawks Feather]

So this is where you go to see rattlesnakes - right?

Jerry

[Bopeye]

Well boys, there is one spot you can be guaranteed that I will never go visit for any reason. 

[Hawks Feather]

Come on Bop, I think we can both go.  It just says to WATCH for them, not that any are there.

Jerry

[Carolina Coyote]

The town of "Vantage" now that is my kind of town, looks like maybe a couple of Grain silo's and a tool barn. Alright!!!  I did not realize that had them buzzzz sticks up there. Beautiful Country. cc

[Okanagan]

Yep, that's good country if you like that kind.  I grew up in that sage and basalt lava rock along the Columbia.  Those little sidewinder rattlesnakes are thick along the river in places. 

For a bit of history, a bank robber named Matt Warner (if I have the right name) ran his horse off one of the cliffs near Vantage, jumping down into the river when a posse cut him off in all directions but the cliff above the river.  I don't know if that's where the old Hollywood westerns got the idea or not but he did it for real.  The posse didn't hit him with their rifles as he swam the river with his horse, and he got away, for awhile anyway.

Yakima Valley cattleman Ben Snipes drove herds of cattle up through this country.  He swam the herds across the Columbia, drove them north and sold them to miners in the Fraser and Cariboo gold rushes in British Columbia.  It was his bank that Matt Warner robbed.  Wild country, tough men.

In winter, with a spotting scope you can see herds of elk and mule deer across the river to the north (the direction the first photo is looking) as they winter on the sage flats along the other side of the Columbia.

[Hawks Feather]

Thanks for the history.  It is always neat to know a little more about an area.

Jerry

[bigben]

whats wrong with a couple rattlesnakes?

[Hawks Feather]

whats wrong with a couple rattlesnakes?

Nothing as long as they are cut up and in a frying pan.

Jerry

[CCP]

Ben the ones in the top 2 pictures look like the Cotton Mouth's we had in Fla.??

[bigben]

na they are black phase rattlers.  they took those pics last year at the sinnemahoning snake hunt i was at.