As for the snakes, I visited Montana canyon in August and found little if any snakes at that time and certainly not all of them rattled. My activity included crawling around bridge foundations, walking around riverbanks, walking through old tunnels, etc. I think maybe it was the fact that it was later in the season that helped. Another thing, avoid clumps of bushes and other places the little fellers seek cover. I was with a friend who is quite the herpatologist. The only buzzworm he found was one who was burrowed around a group of rocks - and it was a youngster. When you do your reading/research, you are lead to believe that the place is crawling with them - like some scene from the Indiana Jones movies. I found it to be a bit less than so. You can still visit both ends of the canyon quite easily without permission. You can even get to a couple places in "the middle" with care. A lot of the canyon is privately owned. However, there are a lot of other "Milwaukee places" in Montana that are easy to get to and are quite beautiful.
If you were there in August, that explains at least partially why. The Canyon is in mountains and that time of year, nights and even days can be cooling. If you check our weather records from the past few years, you'd find we've set a bunch all time recorded overnight lows. Buzzworm behavior changes as days are shortening, they'll tend to hide earlier, come out later. They are there, and that vicinity is well known for them. In fact, with the ongoing drought, they've been showing up in places more frequently, where they are usually quite rare. My wife and a friend walked out the back door of their office building here last summer and found one sunning itself on the stairs. Boxcab E50
Getting permission is always a good thing. I secured permission to hike the Belt Creek area, some railfan territory that was nearly unknown to most Milwaukee nuts. And it was worth it.
