What a beautiful place!
I bet the snake was out "sunning". And if that was a wild cat, a lot of times, they will kill snakes...even the big rattlers.
We live by a state park and were told that they trade deer for rattle snakes....when we first moved here, we had TONS of rattle snakes...AND were told that is illegal (here) to kill one!!!!
And...there are not many ways to keep them out...moth balls didn't work, tick granules don't work....they said you can build a snake fence...it is set about 6 inches under ground and has to be atleast 4 foot high (smooth)...but we didn't want to do that
I hate to think about the "what-ifs"...there are just too many....