snake above 14k feet?

[theo9805]

it was just a little guy, a garter snake i'm guessing?, maybe 1.5 feet long. sorry for the crappy picture, it's from my phone. saw him on mt. evans yesterday. anyone else see snakes this high? maybe it's because of the road/foot/food traffic here on mt. evans. but maybe this is normal too and i just didn't know. unexpected for me especially with the recent snow fall.


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[TerryLiv]

I have never seen a snake of any kind when climbing in Colorado. I saw a gray fox at 8:40 PM at 14,200 on Uncompahgre though. He was looking for dinner.

[Tim Jordan]

Perhaps it was dropped by a hawk.

[MountainHiker]

Perhaps it unintentionally hitched a ride on a car. I’ve never seen a snake above tree line.

Here’s an article on garter snakes in winter. Up high in Colorado doesn’t seem like a place a snake will survive a winter.

http://www.gartersnake.info/articles/ga ... es_i_1.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[CargoClimber]

I've never seen or heard of a snake that high. I have seen them as high as 8500 feet, usually in a wet area.

[summit co kc]

Was it alive?
I've seen small snakes in summit county around keystone and summit cove, but on the summit of a 14er?

[cwm]

Was it alive?
I've seen small snakes in summit county around keystone and summit cove, but on the summit of a 14er?

I owned property in Summit county starting in the early 1980s. I owned a house in Summit Cove for over 14 years and never saw a snake. I assumed they did not exist there unless it was in the north end of the county in the Heeney or Green Mountain Reservoir area since the elevation was closer to 8,000 ft.

But about 6 years ago I did see a snake. I was mountain biking along the east side of Old Dillon Reservoir and there was a snake on the dirt road. I stopped to make sure I was seeing correctly and it crawled off the road. A few minutes later as I was returning it was back on the road enjoying the sun again. The elevation there would be about 9,500 ft.

But I never saw another one again. And I have done a lot of biking and hiking in the Keystone area.

[theo9805]

yeah it was alive, just slithered right across the trail. totally weird. maybe someone just set it free up there for fun?

[MountainHiker]

I saw a snake on the Castle Creek Road. He was in bad shape from apparently having been run over. He was still alive, but seemed to be gasping for air. So I picked him up with a stick and put him in the woods. This was on the hill with campsites before the first stream crossing below 10,200’. Since it was on the road he could have been another possible hitch hiker.

[Buckshot Jake]

I saw a snake up there in June. I was coming down the gully from Evans, slipped and fell, looked to my left under a pile of rocks and saw a snake coiled up. It scared the s**t out of me! That was probably about 13,800 so I am not surprised if you saw one at the top, especially with the warm weather we are still having.

[WheelerDealer]

We've got way too many of the darn things down here in New Mexico. Nearly stepped on a rattler a month ago on a lower elevation hike. Since then, I'm convinced that every shadow is waiting to bite me. Bleck.