One thing to remember when hiking at any place is to remember to watch out for rattlesnakes. This one was in the middle of the road. Remember that they want to mess around with you as much as you want to mess around with them. When you see one leave it alone and give it plenty of room. When I came upon this one everyone was standing around looking at it which is why its coiled up. It feels threatend and its unlikely it will clear off the road. People finally gave it enough room so it got off the road. Snakes will often come out and lay in the sun early in the morning to get warm. Unfortunatly this is usually where people are.

In the Sierras I've only seen rattlesnakes 4 times. The first two times the snake was sunning itself on a ledge next to the trail. My friend was walking behind me and I'd see the snake and take a couple steps to get away from it and let my friend know, which caused him to stop right next to it. We decided to give ourselves more space after the second time. The last time I saw one was when I walked into the Little Yosemite Valley ( the one in Yoemite National Park) campground. The biggest snake I'd ever seen was crawling through the campground with a ground squirrel right at its tail chattering away like crazy to let all the squirrels know it was there. I have yet to see a rattlesnake above about 6000 ft.

http://www.yosemitefun.com/ has a lot of good stuff, but he has an excellent story about what NOT to do with rattlesnakes at the following link, http://www.yosemitefun.com/yosemite_national_park_rattlesnakes.htm. If you have a fast connection check out the link at the top of the page for a vidieo of his experience that was televised.

The FDA's site on snake bites.

Backpaker Magazine article on what to do in the wilderness

UC Davis snake bite information Good site!

There is a lot of bad things to do for snake bites. Please make sure you know the proper care. While looking for good links on snake bites I found that one National Forest had some advice to use ice on a rattlesnake bite. This is exactly what every other site says NOT to do. I emailed them and they fixed it. If its a non poisonous snake its ok to use ice. Don't believe me, READ what the experts say!