{"id":139189,"date":"2025-09-07T10:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T10:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139189\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T10:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T10:47:08","slug":"wyoming-rattler-road-trip-casper-wy-oil-city-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139189\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyoming rattler road trip – Casper, WY Oil City News"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Tennessee Watson<\/a><\/p>\n

Fall\u2019s cooler temperatures send Wyoming\u2019s prairie rattlesnakes slithering home to hang out closer to their dens.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour highest occurrence of crossing paths with the rattlesnake is going to be May, June, July, August and September,\u201d said Matt Rasmussen, vice president of the\u00a0Wyoming Herpetological Society<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For ophidiophobes \u2014\u00a0those with a fear of snakes \u2014 hoping for a firm date, when all rattlers tuck themselves in for winter, Rasmussen says there is no such thing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can expect to see a rattlesnake in most of Wyoming below about 7,200 feet until there\u2019s snow on the ground, because even if there\u2019s a warm day, they can be out,\u201d Rasmussen said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen rattlesnakes every month in Wyoming, except for December, January and February, but that\u2019s typically because I look for them and I like them, and I\u2019m going to where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driving the backroads between Pathfinder Reservoir and the town of Medicine Bow, WyoFile reporter Andrew Graham and his editor had a near miss with two rattlers within a few miles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat particular area of Wyoming is the\u00a0highest density of rattlesnakes anywhere in the state<\/a>,\u201d Rasmussen said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s one of the highest densities of rattlesnakes anywhere in the country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Shirley Basin\u2019s rock pile hills and lower elevation mountains are home to huge rattlesnake dens, Rasmussen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s heard talk of rattlers traveling 3 miles from their dens, and is certain they can range up to a mile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A prairie rattlesnake outside Medicine Bow. (Andrew Graham\/WyoFile)<\/p>\n

The WyoFile staffers were delighted to catch a glimpse of snakes slithering and sunbathing from the safety of their pickups. The first snake was more of a brunette, while the second leaned blonde.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re highly variable in their phenotype and appearance,\u201d Rasmussen said. \u201cTheir name, Crotalus viridis, is green rattlesnake. And some of ours that we have here are extremely green. They\u2019re just beautiful \u2014 glowing chartreuse and green. And others, they\u2019re just chocolate or gray or kind of muted sandy colors. In the same area, in the same population, there\u2019s wide, wide variability in their appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you see one, and you don\u2019t want to get bitten, all you have to do is walk away. Rasmussen advises: \u201cA snake will never chase anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

But seeing them is key?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot see a rattlesnake if it doesn\u2019t want to be seen,\u201d Rasmussen said. \u201cBut you can see the sagebrush that it likes to coil underneath. You can see that small pile of rocks out in the prairie that it likes to hang out by. So if you can identify these small, sun-dappled, shaded areas where they could feel comfortable, and you avoid those, you\u2019ll be fine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rasmussen stands by that advice even after being bit by a rattlesnake last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a complete one in a million fluke,\u201d Rasmussen said. \u201cI work for the railroad in eastern Wyoming and I knelt down to pick up something in between the ties, and it was underneath the foot of the rail, and it got me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That painful encounter \u2014 which he said left his arm looking like a football \u2014 didn\u2019t undermine Rasmussen\u2019s admiration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are an important part of our ecosystem,\u201d Rasmussen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many humans appreciate them for eating rodents, Rasmussen said, but the benefits extend beyond pest control. \u201cThey\u2019re proven to be seed dispersers, because they don\u2019t digest those seeds that are in the stomach of the rodents that they eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said they\u2019re also an important food source for other animals from badgers and bobcats to raptors and hawks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just really cool,\u201d Rasmussen exclaimed. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s an animal with no legs that lives in a state that gets down to 30 below. They\u2019re only active typically for three or four months of the year and can live for over 20 years with that activity level. And there\u2019s been studies that some adults only eat once a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published by\u00a0WyoFile<\/a>\u00a0and is republished here with permission.\u00a0WyoFile<\/a>\u00a0is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By\u00a0Tennessee Watson Fall\u2019s cooler temperatures send Wyoming\u2019s prairie rattlesnakes slithering home to hang out closer to their dens.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-139189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}