These little guys are common enough, but getting close enough to photograph one up close (without capturing one, anyway) is a little more rare, in my limited experience. I don’t look for snakes, but there wasn’t a lot of bugs on the trail and my interest was piqued when I came across it. There seems to be a little conflicting information on Wikipedia about whether these snakes are venomous, but it seems even if they are they’re still pretty harmless to humans. One thing I was not too lazy to verify was that the garter snake is the official reptile of the commonwealth. Who knew.

(Two black and white photos below.)