STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Carissa Chappellet works as legal director for her family’s Chappellet Winery high on Pritchard Hill in Napa, California.
But she spends her rest and relaxation time in Sun Valley caring for a snake.
Not just any snake, but the snake, or rather the snakes, that grow along the fence that borders the Sun Valley festival meadow.
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These stones include a mouse reading by candlelight and a ladybug. |
Carissa was riding the bike path between Ketchum and the home she shares with her sister, Blakesley Chappellet, and other family members last year when she noticed a line of painted rocks winding through the weeds next to the bike path.
“I saw it and thought: How funny. It captivates the children,” she says.
She is an artist herself and has taken on the task of looking after the snake. She attached the sign that read: “Hello, I’m Shaka-Rocka, the rock snake. Attach a painted rock to my body and watch how big I get.”
She cleared the area of weeds, repaired some of the stones that had weathered in the sun, and repositioned lost stones.
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Signs invite passersby to add their own painted stones. |
Then she started with a baby snake and added the sign: “Baby Shak-A RockA, born June 1, 2024. Cover my body with little painted rocks and watch me grow.”
“Every time I work on it, people come by and add to it. They ask, ‘Where can we get rocks?’ And I point to the rocks at the edge of the field: ‘Over there,'” she said.
In addition to guarding other people’s stones, Chappellet has also painted her own with acrylic paints, depicting figures such as dragons and bunnies on them.
“I love it because there are all kinds of artistic levels, from a simple blue painted rock to this one,” she said, picking up one with an intricate image of a mouse reading by candlelight. “Some paint geometric patterns, others turn rocks into ladybugs.”
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In addition to the steadily growing original snake, a young rock snake has also appeared. |
There were so many vole holes near the snakes that Chappellet’s niece began putting rocks in the holes to prevent people from stepping in. Chappellet took the rocks inside for the winter, washed them, and left a sign informing people that the snakes were hibernating.
She then began breeding rock snakes on her ranch in Big Sur, California.
Not long ago, Chappellet measured the length of the snake that started it all at about 36 feet.
“It was just so much fun to watch it grow and see people stop and look at it,” she said.
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Carissa Chappellet holds the stone, which depicts a mouse reading by candlelight. |
