Hey, everyone! I returned from Southern Illinois a few hours ago, having spent the long weekend at a place that I only recently learned of… called Snake Road. This is a place that’s part of Shawnee National Forest that is home to the (I think?) largest snake migration in the United States. Every spring and summer, they close down the road to vehicles for two months to protect migrating snakes as they move from their summer spots to their winter brumation in the bluffs.
It’s funny that I’d only heard of this place recently, considering I’m from Illinois. The knowledge came at the perfect time, because I have been missing my snakes since leaving Asia.
Chicago to Champaign to Benton
Maybe six weeks ago, I went down to southern Iowa with Joey and Rob to check out a few caves at a place called Maquoketa (we had a fun time trying to pronounce that). It was a fun day trip with the boys. And on the way, Joey picked up some Illinois tourism pamphlets at a rest stop. Even though I’d flipped through one of them, it was Joey who spotted the information about Snake Road – a place I was sure to love.
I will absolutely be returning with Joey and Rob one day – ideally in the peak of the season. But because mi amigo Levi and I both had a three day weekend, we decided to do the trip together. Levi has a passion for wildlife as well, and… unlike most, that includes reptiles. He has a pet gecko, actually!
Friday night, Levi met me at my apartment along with his sweet dog Eva. We ate dinner as I finished up work and around 8.30pm, we hopped into his car and began our journey. We decided to break it up into two spots. To avoid driving for a super long duration on our first night (mostly because I had no idea when I would be finishing work), we planned to drive as far as Champaign. The ride was easy enough. We listened to music – well, mostly, I sang – and a little over 2 hours later, we’d arrived at our accommodation.
Two steps from entering our Airbnb, Levi commented, “I hope it doesn’t smell…” and upon entry, it was confirmed. The place did have a smell. A trash-y smell. Like… maybe there had been some garbage left in the Airbnb from the previous guests and no one else had been there for a month lol. I suppose Levi jinxed himself in that regard.
ALAS. It was late. We were tired. After a shower, we went to bed. Or… we tried to. I was so exhausted but slept like absolute shit. The bed was too firm, the pillow was too firm, blah blah blah. Levi felt the same. Needless to say, in the morning, we were not well-rested.
We had over two hours to drive to get to our next destination: Benton, IL. We left the Airbnb around 10pm, stopped for coffee, and then drove to Carbondale to grab brunch before checking in. It ended up being a very long day of driving.
Our accommodation in Benton was super cute – Benton Lakehouse Resort, a relatively new establishment. It was a wooden cabin. I wish I’d gotten a photo of it, but only managed one from the interior, featuring a blurry Eva.
We checked in and because we still had a fair amount of the afternoon left, we decided to drive yet another hour to get to Snake Road. Would we see any snakes? I had my doubts. The road closes in the fall starting September 1st and remains closed until October 31st – but the peak of the season is mid-October. And when I say peak, I mean people are seeing 40 snakes crossing the road in just a couple hours. That is… insanity. I HAVE to get back there during the peak season one day.
I figured – hey, I’ll be happy if I see one single snake. And… well, I’d really like to see an armadillo. Did you know there are armadillos in Illinois? Neither did I, until a few weeks ago.
Snake Road: Day 1
It was just after 5pm before we arrived at Snake Road. We turned off the highway and onto a gravel road – with a river to the left and plenty of trees. The road curved to the right and a tall bluff revealed itself along the horizon. Very cool!
And then… what is that thing on the road?
Oh. That’s just some trash.
But what about that thing?
And there it was – a cottonmouth, just about to slither off into the grass. As we passed it, it stopped still and opened its mouth, flashing the signature white of its namesake.
If you remember from my Alaska adventure, my response to seeing the cottonmouth was largely the same as my first moose sighting. I was ecstatic. And li’l guy stuck around long enough for me to get a decent picture of it, too!
Unfortunately, cottonmouths open their mouths like that as a defense mechanism – so, clearly we were bothering him. We thanked him and continued to move along – but we were already super thrilled to have seen at least ONE snake. The sentinel, welcoming us to Snake Road.
With it being so late in the day, we weren’t surprised to see nobody else in the parking lot. It was just Levi and me.
I was equipped with my trusty headtorch, in case we were there after dark.
The entrance to “Snake Road” is closed off from vehicles by a gate. Hikers are allowed to enter even when the road is closed.
The trail was pretty and at times reminded me of some spots I’d visited in Vietnam and Thailand. I kind of still can’t believe there is something like this in my home state. Very cool!
Almost right away, we started spotting cool bugs along the trail – like this pretty caterpillar.
Maybe five minutes into our walk, I heard rustling along the ground. Levi and I both slowed our step, trying carefully not to spook whatever it was. I noticed a nearby plant swaying, as if a critter was foraging nearby. Was it yet another squirrel, or… something else?
And then I spotted it.
A fucking armadillo.
I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT!
Within fifteen minutes, I’d seen the two items that were on my wishlist: a cottonmouth and an armadillo. I was highly doubting I would see either!
At the sound of my camera, it snapped its head up to see where the noise was coming from. And then it started to walk away. My camera settings weren’t very accommodating in the low-light conditions and I remarked that the photos didn’t turn out. But with some light editing, I actually did manage to snap a somewhat decent photo! Yahoo!
What a dream.
We continued along. Birds were fluttering about. Squirrels were barking at us. We saw (maybe?) an owl silently flying through the forest.
At times we had to get somewhat creative, as an overflowing pond served as a barrier along the trail. I hopped from rock to tree bark to rock, then held out my hand for Levi to join me on the other side.
Levi mentioned that in the videos he’d seen, people were often spotting snakes along the bluffs. That was, after all, where the migration would eventually lead them by the end of October. A small trail led up to the bluffs and we went to explore.
I passed my headtorch to Levi so he could investigate the crevices of the bluffs. (As an aside, I have to mention how nice it is to spend time “herping” with somebody else. Over the past 3+ years, I have spent countless hours walking in the day, walking at night, looking for snakes and other weird creatures. Almost always alone. And here I am, back in Illinois, able to do the same thing – but this time, not alone.)
A moment later, Levi spotted our second snake of the evening: a rough green snake. Only minutes prior, after seeing the armadillo, he had remarked how he was really hoping to see one. Well, there ya have it! We both were able to check off our list within 30min at Snake Road. Yahoo!
After taking a few photos of our green snake, I noticed ANOTHER green snake, only ten feet away. This guy was much smaller. Perhaps the first was a female (typically larger) and this one was male. What a win!
We continued along the bluff, with Levi shining the light into all the nooks and crannies of the bluff. “Cottonmouth!” he exclaimed, and I rushed over. Tucked into the shadows, a cottonmouth lay coiled. Bothered by our presence, he unfurled and retreated further into the depths of the bluff. Sorry, l’il guy! But thanks for the sighting!
He was getting ready to shed as you can see by the cloudy blue-ish eyes.
By this point, we were somewhat high up on the bluff. The trail down to the main path was steep. With my knees and clumsiness, that is NOT my forte, if you remember from my orangutan trek in Sumatra. I very, very slowly half-crawled down the hill, cautiously looking for snakes I may accidentally step on in the process. EEK! But we both made it down safely.
As the light began to fade, we saw a raccoon, a possum, more frogs and toads, some TURKEYS(?!), ducks, millipedes, and spiders.
We had one more lovely snake sighting before turning back around. A teeny, tiny snake lay at the edge of the path, with its head tucked under a leaf. “You can’t see me!” it seemed to be saying.
We wondered if maybe it was dead. With a twig, Levi gently lifted the leaf. The snake let us admire it for a few moments, unmoving. Reddit tells me this was a young plain-bellied water snake.
(Above photos taken courtesy of Levi – snake on left and me looking at bb snake on the right – you can see its size just at the bottom edge of the photo)
The lighting was beautiful at this point. The setting sun had lit up the woods with an unusual yellow hue. I remarked how lovely the lighting was and asked if we could take a selfie. Levi and I have known each other for a few months now but have never before taken a selfie together haha.
The light quickly left the woods and we were soon walking in darkness. My headtorch lit the way as we hustled back to the car. I like herping in the dark but one thing I had SOMEHOW forgotten to mention was just how absolutely RELENTLESS the bugs were. Not so much mosquitoes, but there were these flies there that were constantly biting at us. It was a major annoyance during our walk.
We returned to the car and started our drive home. When exiting the gravel road, we spotted one more cottonmouth at the edge of the road and then, shortly thereafter, an OWL!
Owls are sort of a joke between Levi and I. The second time we hung out, we went to eat empanadas at the lake. During our walk, a bird was flying overhead, and Levi said he thought it was an owl. But… it definitely was not. But this was undoubtedly an owl.
What a great first day at Snake Road! With cottonmouths bookending our visit (with both a hello AND a goodbye!), we saw more critters than we could have hoped for. Major success.
We grabbed pizza and returned to our cabin over an hour later, exhausted from a very, very long day.
Snake Road: Day 2
The following morning, we woke at 7am to see what Snake Road had to offer in the morning hours. Next time I come, I’ll have to stay closer to the park. We had to drive a little over an hour from Benton to get there. Carbondale is a better option, I think.
When we arrived, there were already others there, which was an interesting departure from the evening before. Early on, we spotted a pair of strange bugs mating. We pointed them out to one of the other hikers, who confidently said, “oh, yeah, those are wheelbugs.” Okay! Cool. He also pointed out a yellow spider tucked into a yellow cup flower. Levi and I decided he was “A Bug Guy”.
As we came up to one of the ponds, Levi noticed a snake in the water. It was slithering about, weaving behind natural obstructions. I wasn’t really able to get a good photo, unfortunately. Levi saw what he thinks was a second one as well. I only saw the one guy.
A minute or two later, we reached the main pond area and I spotted another snake in the water. Cool! It moved through the algae, clearly hunting for food. At times it came right up to the edge of the water, but never moved onto the trail. We were trying to figure out if these snakes were cottonmouths or a type of water snake – but with our photos, in the end we decided they were cottonmouths.
The dragonflies and butterflies were in full effect on this day. One of the butterflies landed on my shoulder, then on my hat, and proceeded to stay there for a few minutes. Miraculously, the flies from the night before had disappeared.
Our next sighting was of another rough green snake – cutie on a tree. This was the first snake in the States that I’d ever seen in a tree, which was an exciting feat for me.
Throughout our adventure, Levi was able to spot a number of shedded snake skin. I didn’t take any photos but it was cool to see – one of them, Levi thought was very fresh.
We walked and walked and walked, with the road seemingly having no end. It’s only supposed to be about two miles but when you’re slowly scanning for wildlife, two miles can take a very long time.
Near some of the bluffs, we saw the head of a rat snake peaking out of a crevice. As we moved nearer to inspect it, it vanished completely. BUT TO WHERE? the crevice seemed to be very shallow, and we would have seen it had it moved along the edge of the bluff. We walked back and forth, but never managed to discover where it disappeared to. What we did see, though, were the largest spiders I’ve ever seen in Illinois! There were two of them and we’re thinking they are wolf spiders. I had no clue they could get so big here. Very cool!
Around 1pm, we started to head back. Along the way, we saw a turtle resting in the middle of the trail. He was a cutie! And a fairly large beetle, too.
We were both covered in sweat and eager for food, a shower, and to spend time with Eva.
Return Home
The rest of our afternoon was tranquil. We took a cat nap, grabbed Mexican food, watched 40min of a movie… but the whole time, I was falling asleep. I was really tired after our big adventure.
Our final morning came around and already, it was time to head back to Chicago. How did the weekend go so fast?
But it was fun. I felt so grateful that I was able to be in nature like that again, after spending so much time doing things like that between Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Asia.
We packed up our belongings and hit the road. We grabbed lunch in Champaign, then continued our journey.
While I was driving, Eva rested her snoot on my shoulder, which was the cutest thing ever. She would just press it there and leave it resting for minutes at a time. Hahaha. Adorable.
Levi lived in Costa Rica for three months many moons ago and found Eva there. He ended up bringing her back to America with him. Fitting – because I will be visiting Costa Rica for the first time for my birthday trip in a few months!
By 4pm, we’d made it back to my apartment. Levi helped me drop off my things and then he split. We said goodbye and I thanked him for joining me on such a fun adventure. I’m hoping we’ll have more wildlife adventures in the future together.
Reflections
Snake Road absolutely delivered. I wasn’t sure what to expect, with it being so early in the season… but it was amazing. I would go back in a heartbeat – especially during peak season, whether it’s spring or fall. I’m already like…….. wait, can I go back in a few weeks? Haha.
I’m glad that even being back home in the States, I’m finding new ways to enjoy nature. The caves with the boys in southern Iowa, Snake Road in Southern Illinois, the trip around Lake Michigan with my parents and nephew. All good things. Life is good.
I imagine the next time I’ll be writing a post will be in a couple months, when I return from Costa Rica. I have a few really fun things planned there and am sure I’ll be seeing plenty of wildlife to write about.
Until then, sending you all my love. x
