I have quite a few rattlesnake pictures so we know they are around. In the Mojave desert of western Arizona we came across a young Mojave Green rattler who was sleeping about 30’ from where we had set our tent. We left it alone but were glad to have that thin barrier, don’t like the idea of cozying up with that. Lol I know they don’t hunt humans but they surely bungle into them at times. When I was 10 we were camping in the Sonoran desert and all lounging around camp mid afternoon and my father sort of levitated up off his chase lounge and curiously started climbing the outer canopy of a palo verde tree. They are brittle and very prickly. So the branches of course didn’t support his weight and he crashed down into the chase lounge and right up again dancing backwards with a diamondback doing short strikes at him. It had been hunting and surprised the daylights out of both of them. Another trip in Mexico my mother was scared half to death by one in some nearby bushes in the dark. I’ve come very close to stepping on rattlesnakes two years in a row now.

The thin barrier of a nylon tent feels good out there in the darkness. I know a guy who woke up to two mountain lions pacing around his tent. He lay quiet but got some amazing photos and waited until they departed. Don’t know what the outcome would have been without that hiding place but who knows. Again there were two of them and they were adults pacing back and forth. That guy really covered ground and tons of bag nights, even got a dry strike on the calf from a surprised rattler once.

When young I didn’t care but now I strongly prefer a light little tent for carefree sleep.