STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Carissa Chappellet works as director of legal affairs for her family’s Chappellet Winery high on Pritchard Hill in Napa, Calif.

But she spends her R&R time in Sun Valley tending a snake.

Not just any snake but the snake or, rather snakes, that are growing along the fence bordering Sun Valley’s Festival Meadow.

These rocks include a mouse reading by candlelight and a ladybug.

Carissa was walking 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 snaking through the weeds alongside the bike path.

“I saw it and thought: How fun. It engages the kids,” she recounted.

An artist herself, she took it upon herself to shepherd the snake. She fixed the sign to say, “Hi I Am Shaka-Rocka, the Rock Snake. Add a painted rock to my body and see how big I grow.”

She weeded the area, touched up some of the rocks that had weathered in the sun and repositioned rocks that had gone astray.

Signs encourage passersby to add their own painted rocks.

Then, she started a baby snake, adding the sign “Baby Shak-A RockA, born June 1, 2024. Add little painted rocks to my body and watch me grow.”

“Any time I’m working on it, people come by and add to it. People ask, Where can we get rocks?’ and I point to the rocks along the field, ‘Over there,’ ” she said.

In addition to shepherding other people’s rocks, Chappellet has used acrylic paint to paint her own with such characters as dragons and bunnies.

“I love it because there’s all different levels of artistry from a simple rock that’s been painted blue to this,” she said, picking up one with an intricate picture of a mouse reading by candlelight. “Some paint geometric designs; others turn rocks into ladybugs.”

A baby rock snake has emerged along the ever-growing original snake.

There were so many vole holes near the snakes that Chappellet’s niece began sticking rocks in the holes to keep people from stepping in the holes. Chappellet, meanwhile, took the rocks in for the winter, washing them and leaving behind a sign telling people that the snakes were hibernating.

Then she started a rock snake at her ranch in Big Sur, Calif.

Not too long ago, Chappellet measured the snake that started it all at about 36 feet.

“It’s just been a lot of fun watching it grow and watching people stop and look at it,” she said.

Carissa Chappellet holds the rock depicting a mouse reading by candlelight.