|
Gopher Snake Petroglyph and Video 44-second video (2.2-meg file) | April 9, 2009 |
| |
The incident occurred nine years ago, but makes up one of my clearer memories - of a beautiful day in the northern part of Dinosaur National Monument, Utah. Sue and I were hiking to see a particular set of petroglyphs, including a large one of a snake. |
|
|
| |
Impressive artwork!
While we were admiring Ancient Snake, an enormous gopher snake slithered into view. The gopher snake was easily 7 feet from nose to tail and probably longer. The body may appear thin in the video below, but I remember it as being rather thick. The manner in which a snake slithers is extremely elegant. |
| |
| |
So what are the odds of seeing a large petroglyph of a snake and have a large snake appear at the same time? Is it something about the area? About how the rocks and cavities are arranged? Did the original artist know that the location was a favorite one of snakes?
After the gopher snake vanished underground, I took photos of the petroglyphs (but we didn't feel like sitting on the nearby rocks). I've one extra photo of the petroglyphs on the "non-video" page here.
Note: The video was taken in 2000 on a Sony digital-8 camcorder; digital footage was captured and edited in Pinnacle Studio 10; a mp4 file was converted to Flash by DVDVideoSoft's free converter; and Flash MX was used to embed the video.
|