Snake Road with my kids (and a detour)

Last October, knowing I would be roughly in the neighborhood, I took my kids down to Snake Road. Snake Road is well known for having a ton of cool snakes, many of which migrate between the limestone bluffs that run along the east side of the road, and some swampy areas on the west side, each fall and winter. The road is closed to vehicles during this time, but hikers can start at either end of the road and walk along it. It’s a pilgrimage site for a lot of herpers and naturalist in the US and around the world. It also draws a fair number of local hikers and snake-curious non-herpers hoping to see a snake. More than a dozen species of snake are regularly seen at snake road, so it's a great place to be if you want to run into snakes. But it's worth noting - you can see a lot more than snakes at snake road, including other reptiles and amphibians, birds, and mammals.

Ok, I admit it. Chicago is not exactly "in the neighborhood" of snake road, but it's way closer than I usually am, being based here in Southern California. Typically folks visiting snake road would fly into St Louis or another closer airport, but we were in Chicago for another reason - a conference, and a subsequent reunion with some good college friends. We got to Chicago, rented a car, I took our two kids, and we drove down to Snake Road. Snake Road has a campsite nearby (the Pine Hills Campground) so we stayed there. We set up our tent, claimed our spot, and then went over to Snake Road in the late afternoon and evening.

The day before had seen a little rain, and we even got a bit more earlier that afternoon. I think the warm rain actually helped bring out the herps. We had maybe one or two hours before dark, but even in that short amount of time we saw six cottonmouths, a central newt, a few leopard frogs, and a few Blanchard’s cricket frogs.The kids had a great time. We were there a little before peak season, so I wasn't sure how much we'd see - but snakes were moving!

One of the best things we did before we got there was to have prepared little field guides for the kids showing the snakes and other animals they were most likely to see. They had little checkboxes for snakes they saw, the kids really liked having them, drawing in them, and carrying them around. They still have them and draw in them and occasionally update them. If you would like to have a copy for your kids, let me know and I can share the doc with you! I'm not planning to publish them here because I don't think I have the rights for all the images I pulled from the web to use in the guide. But the kids were prepared for what it would be like and were excited to be there!

We spent the night at the campground, woke up early the next morning, and went out looking for snakes at a different spot nearby. There’s a great field guide to the snakes of Snake Road, written by a guy (Joshua Vossler) who hiked there several hundred times over the course of a few years, counting every single snake he saw and making a frequency chart of what you’re most likely to see. His advice was to go in the afternoon, so we went somewhere else in the morning, and planned to go back to Snake Road in the afternoon.

We didn't end up seeing any snakes at the other morning spot. But we were soon to encounter a wrinkle that would really define the trip for us. As we were driving back on one of the state highways, we ended up getting rear-ended on a county road. Everyone was fine, but the car was no longer driveable. The other party accepted liability, but lacking a local support network, it was a logistical nightmare for us, and cost us two of our planned days at snake road, and a couple thousand dollars of uncovered logistical costs!

The first trouble was that we couldn't get a replacement rental. I called every rental car agency within 75 miles, including in Kentucky and Indiana, but no one had any vehicles. Unable to get a replacement car, an Uber, a Lyft, or anything, and being outside the range of public transportation, we ended up paying a very nice local woman to drive us to Carbondale (which she would have done for free) and stayed there in a hotel for a couple of nights. I picked a hotel a block away from the Amtrak station in town - our only way back to Chicago - because we would eventually have to walk there with all of our stuff.

But train tickets were not available for a couple of days, so we had some time to kill before heading back to Chicago. Complicating matters, our camping gear was all still back down to the campground! So after many more attempts to find a rental (including a uhaul, or anything drive-able!), I finally found and hired a private cab service in Carbondale for the better part of a day to take us down. We first got our camping gear, and then I had our driver take us to Snake Road, where we arranged to stayed for four hours while he waited for us. That was a little pricey - but worth the marginal cost to more than double our time at snake road after a large expenditure to get within striking distance in the first place. So we got a little bit of consolation time at Snake Road in the end.

Once there, we had a fabulous time, saw lots of snakes, and most surprisingly to me (though it retrospect perfectly predictable) had a wonderful time chatting with the other folks at the road.

While we were at Snake Road, the kids decided they wanted to ask everyone they passed: “What’s your favorite animal?” You know how it is when a stranger stops you — you’re a little unsure what they want. But when the kids asked that question, everybody would just light up.

You might be surprised how few people said snake. We got lots of different answers - dogs, horses, and various pet-type animals, but also a lot of marine life - dolphins, whales, otters - and birds. And of course several people did say "snake", or some specific snake, e.g., "timber rattlesnake". The kids shared their favorites too: my daughter said blue jay, and my son said "all animals" (cop out!!).

Out of one of these kid-inspired conversations, and a fortuitous rough greensnake sighting, we found ourselves folded into a fun ad-hoc group of people walking the road together, which was really useful for snake-spotting. The more eyes you have, we soon realized, the more snakes you’re likely to see. One family we passed on their way out expressed their disappointment that they had not seen any snakes. We helped them find one, and they were over the moon about it! It felt great to help some strangers get a nice "herping" experience - that's not always possible, but the public and protected nature of snake road enables that.

Over the course of our four hours there, plus the evening before, we saw: nine cottonmouths, four rough green snakes (a primary target for me and my kids!), a couple of water snakes, and a couple of DOR snakes on the road on the way in. The rough greensnake sightings seemed especially unusual and lucky, according to the numbers in the field guide. We also saw two armadillos. One living, at the road, and one dead, unfortunately, also on the road in. Not a lot of people realize there are armadillos in Southern Illinois; they seem to be a pretty recent arrival to the area, making their way north from their southern home.

We eventually got back to Chicago on the train and finished out our trip with a meetup with college buddies. While on an unrelated excursion with some of these friends, we found one surprise red-bellied snake, catching a last minute basking session before the winter set in. A nice way to end the trip - with yet another lifer. They come fast when you're in a new place.

All in all - an excellent trip, which is saying something, given our particular circumstances. I highly recommend visiting snake road if you can. But I don’t recommend getting in a car accident while you’re there. Southern Illinois is very rural and sparse on rental car infrastructure. Making up for that, people were super nice and accommodating to us and bent over backwards to help us out. Without the accident, we would have had much more time at Snake Road, so it was a bummer to lose that time. Regardless, we had a wonderful six hours there.

Can’t wait to go back.