RATTLESNAKE?! Remnants of old oil company docks, cactus and jellyfish at Lighthouse Trail Park (Aransas Pass, Texas)

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Cactus skeleton



































It was just around the corner there from the dock remnants, (see where the green grass and brush is?), that I think I encountered a rattlesnake. YIKES! Luckily, (or maybe not...because I would have enjoyed taking it's picture...I think) I did not see it, but I certainly did hear it. I was walking on the sand, but the grassy area was about chest height to me (kind of a cliff area...the terrain, not my chest...LOL).

I was holding my camera to take another shot of something when I heard what sounded like a cross between a rattle and a buzz. At first I thought it was broken bits of shells beneath my feet, but when I looked down there were hardly any where I was standing, so I stood perfectly still then I heard it again!

I was only about a foot and a half in front of the "cliff" facing it, trying to see if I could see something (bees or wasps maybe?) when I heard a sharp "HISS" and then another sharp "hisssss" quickly followed! Not to worry though, I had already been very slowly and quietly backing away from that area to resume my picture taking farther on down.

A couple of days later when mentioning this little episode to a guy who lives full-time in our RV Park (he's a native Texan and works and lives in this area for many years)...he told us that the whole Lighthouse Trail Park area used to be a shipping area full of docks for an oil company years ago and that the area was then and still is infested with rattlesnakes and that he wouldn't set foot over there, not even to go fishing (which many people do).

So, will I go back sometime? Sure I will!
I'll just be more cautious next time. ;-)

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Lighthouse Trail Park - Jan.19,2011