I had a great trip to Arizona but the first few days started slowly for me and my wife Rachel. Luck may be better than skill sometimes. On July 31st Rachel and I worked sunrise to well past sunset using inside tips from accomplished fieldherpers and came up empty on Gila Monsters and rattlesnakes, while my brother slept in, swam in the motel pool and didn't venture out into backroads until the late afternoon and found a Gila Monster! My parents meanwhile were too busy climbing mountains to seriously herp and naturally they found an Arizona Black Rattlesnake. My best July 31st find was a huge Sonoran Desert Toad.

Since we didn't see many snakes the first few days, I thought I'd start by posting some habitat pictures.

Yarrow's Spiny Lizard and Twin-Spotted Rattlesnake Habitat.

{{gwi:1371138}}

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake and Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake Habitat:

{{gwi:1371139}}

Gila Monster and Western Diamondback Habitat:

{{gwi:1371140}}

One of the first habitats we found an interesting herp in was a bath towel! My dad had finished showering in the cabin we were staying at and when he was drying himself off he noticed a Madrean Alligator Lizard clinging to his bath towel.

Rachel and I finally had a great night on August 2nd when a gorgeous and very large green adult Mojave rattlesnake with really thin rings on its tail crossed the flats on a dirt road in front of us. It was an awesome specimen and we reached for the camera....only to discover we'd left it in the cabin...sigh.. It was our liflist Mojave Rattlesnake. We saw a second smaller one about 20 minutes later at 8:05PM. It was a great night and we were on the board on 8/2/05.

On August 4th my mom lucked into finding a Green Rat Snake in a bush right before a thunderstorm while she was bringing water out to those of us who had hiked up a mountain. I'm a little afraid of heights and only climbed the mountain because I figured there'd be snakes in some of the habitat along the way. Had I known that I could have found a Green Rat Snake by not crossing thin stretches of scree I'd have done that! As it was I almost tumbled down a sleep slope at one spot and I've decided that snakes are a safer hobby than mountains.

AUGUST 5th A GREAT DAY!!

While on our way to look for montane rattlesnakes this beautiful Blacktail Rattlesnake was crossing a gravel road at 1:35PM

{{gwi:1371141}}

We followed it and took pictures as it continued its crawl off road:

{{gwi:1371142}}

{{gwi:1371143}}

Later that afternoon we also found this gorgeous Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake crossing! It was surprisingly fiesty and bit me 5 times. What a fantastic snake and our second beautiful snake of the day.

{{gwi:1370889}}

Our luck continued that night. My parents had never seen a Western Diamondback in the wild so I set out to find one. We found two of them including this large specimen (approximately 43 inches). The picture isn't the greatest.

{{gwi:1371144}}

Parts 2 and 3 to come soon.

Hope you enjoyed..