Looking back, this is rapidly appearing to be a photographic journal of just sunsets and rattlesnakes.

Sorry, but here's another one...

I was headed down the ridge, back to the truck that wasn't far away, yet would take a thousand tense, cautious steps to reach, when I saw it.

One large rattler, crawling slowly up the slope towards the rocks that would give it shelter for the night, and coming winter.

It hadn't seen me yet, and afforded a couple "natural" snake pictures before I pushed my luck a little too much and, poof, it turned into a coiled, inflated fury.

With venom at one end, and a buzzing baby's toy at the other.

But the sun was setting, it couldn't stay out in the open too much longer. The rattler broke our standoff and made a steady slither towards the gap under one large, flat rock. As the front of the snake disappeared from view it relaxed and I could see the body deflate, hugging itself flat against the warm ground.

I couldn't believe it. A second opportunity in less than a half-hour. Putting my left foot forward again, I leaned over the rock and raised my hand for a swat at yet another rattler tail.

And flung my hand back as the front end of the snake, the dangerous end, came flashing back out from under cover, tail a buzzin'. In an instant, I had this in front of me:

Time to go...