Hiker turns to find huge, dangling snake in Tennessee park. ‘My heart hit the ground’
Snakes don’t typically warrant publicity for being in the woods — unless one is big enough to hang in the trees like several feet of cable.
That’s what a Tennessee romance novelist walked into recently, while hiking near a waterfall in Gregory Mill Park in Smyrna, Tennessee, just southeast of Nashville.
“Has anyone else risked their life to take a pic because you just knew your husband wouldn’t believe you?” Courtnie Dunn joked in a Facebook post. “Still trying to control my breathing.”
Her photo shows a thick snake, roughly 4 feet long, trailing up a small tree trunk, crossing a limb and dangling from an adjoining tree.
Dunn told McClatchy News she was hiking with her two children, ages 4 and 5, when she turned and saw the snake.
“Honestly, when I turned around my heart hit the ground, because I am scared of snakes, but I didn’t want to scare my children,” Dunn said.
“My mom instincts just kicked in and I remained as calm as could, got them out of the way, took the photo, then I ducked. There may have been a squeal and I got out of nature’s way myself!”
The image has inspired hundreds of reactions and comments on social media, including suggestions that a pet owner had released an invasive snake into the wild. Others said it was the presence of the snake so high in the trees that unnerved them.
“That is somebody’s pet python they have let go of, because he got too big for the habitat,” one person wrote.
“That thing sure has been eating good! I’d probably die right there on the spot,” another posted.
So what type of snake was it?
A very “fat” but nonvenomous water snake, according to the Tennessee Snake Identification and Education Facebook page. There are at least five water snake species native to Tennessee, the biggest of which can grow to 4 feet, the state says.
However, the fact the snake is harmless didn’t seem to ease concerns. It was the size people were focused on, and the possibility it might surprise them.
“Water snake??!? What water!??! This is exactly why I don’t get in the lake,” one person wrote.
“If that is a water snake I will NEVER move to Tennessee! Lol,” another said.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 8:38 AM with the headline "Hiker turns to find huge, dangling snake in Tennessee park. ‘My heart hit the ground’."