Spencer and I decided to get a morning hike in yesterday. We headed up to the Rattlesnake Mountain area since he hadn't been there before. We started up a different trail which took us up a ravine. We wanted to get up on the hill so we ended up going cross country as the trail wasn't heading up the hill. On our way up, we came across the area's namesake, a Rattler. I just happened to look down as I was about to step on the snake and said whoa! and stepped aside. It didn't rattle to give us warning but appeared to be a little slow as it was a cool morning and seemed to be sunning itself to get a little warmed up. It did end up rattling a bit at us. We estimated it to be about a meter long.
Then, Spencer let out a whoa! and another snake was stretched out in front of him. This one appeared to be a bull or garter snake.
We got to the top and looked over at Mount Adams and took in the vista. We took in the view of the Hanford site, Benton City, Prosser, the Horse Heaven Hills, the Tri-Cities, the rivers and more. There were plenty of wildflowers out too! 
It was kind of spiny and puffed up to try and look big but we held it and it seemed calm and non-threatening. A good hike of about 6.5 miles, a beautiful day!
