early this morning when this unusually reddish rattler became annoyed and clearly announced its presence as I rolled by on the singletrack.
Hopi rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis nuntius), a subspecies of the prairie rattlesnake.
UPDATE: From Chris, a local BLM biologist: “Hopi rattlesnake makes sense for the color and smaller size. The taxonomy has changed recently so the subspecies is no longer recognized and is instead considered a dwarf variant of the prairie rattler.“