Visitors to Cooper Mountain Nature Park enjoy the 3.5 miles of trails that wind through the natural area, but one little gal calling the park home this summer prefers the pond.
On a recent morning, two Metro employees capturing video of the scenic habitats at Cooper Mountain were startled to find not a turtle or frog swimming in the park’s pond, but a snake.
The snake is a garter snake, which stretched more than two feet long and may have been surfing for a meal of tadpoles in the pond. The employees who shot the video footage believe it to be a Northwestern garter snake.
Check out the swimming snake in action
Garter snakes are often mistakenly called gardener snakes. The one in the video was looking a little plump and, this time of year that may mean some little ones are coming soon.
Check out nature at Cooper Mountain this summer
Cooper Mountain Nature Park covers 231 acres and sits on the southern edge of Beaverton. It is operated through a partnership between Metro and the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District. Enjoy great views of the Chehalem Mountains and Tualatin Valley. Visitors can hike the trails, which offer varying levels of difficulty; a 3/4-mile loop is wheelchair accessible. Visitors can also get a close-up look at white oaks, evergreens, native grasses, wildflowers and more. Every once in awhile, visitors can catch a glimpse of the park’s wildlife such as deer, Western gray squirrels, frogs or even the swimming garter snake.
Voters and volunteers preserve Cooper Mountain
Metro began purchasing land on Cooper Mountain in 1997, with funds from the 1995 voter-approved natural areas bond measure. A second bond and a grant from Oregon State Parks funded park restoration and development. Volunteers joined Metro scientists in transforming Cooper Mountain. They removed invasive species, restored native grasses and wildflowers, planted more than 110,000 trees and shrubs, enhanced the oak woodlands and improved that small quarry pond the garter snake seems to enjoy so much.