This was my First trip to Arizona and I couldn’t have had a better time. I met up with fellow enthusiast Bill Hughes aka “VegasBilly” in Phoenix after a three hour flight from Portland; He had a five hour drive from Vegas. After picking me up in we headed three hours south via the west side of the Pajaritos. We were greeted by wet roads and a beautiful DOR Coachwhip on the way down and the promise of some good herping….
We drove back and forth on an infamous road for the next two days and nights in anticipation of finding some local Border Jumpers of the cold blooded kind. Unfortunately the area seamed pretty inactive except for the 300 Border patrol vehicles flying down the road at 75 mph. We eventually did find a large Atrox on the way out, the only herp found besides the notorious Whiptails, tarantulas and a few Earless lizards.
A few habitat pics
After being pretty much skunked down south we decided to switch it up a little and went out to the lowlands in search of Coachwhips. Drove a hundred more miles across some pretty parched land and still didn’t find much. The Thunderstorms were building up North so we went after them. We headed up to the Santa Rita Mountains and Bill dropped me off to do some exploring on my own. Not to long into the hike I started finding all sorts of reptilian activity. The Yarrow’s Spiny lizards
Sceloporus jarrovii were out in force.
As were Clark’s Spiny Lizards
Sceloporus clarkia.
I continued hiking and heard a snake sounding rustle in the leaves and was ecstatic to see one of my main targets of the trip a recently hatched Sonoran Whipsnake
Masticophis/Coluber bilineatus.
Not to long after I found a nice looking Greater short horned lizard
Phrynosoma hernandesi.
I found a good slab of Granite with numerous Pyro piles and had a look around. I spoted a small Green Rat
Senticolis triaspis in a crack next to piles, Unfortunatly he spoted me and decided to retreat to the depths…next time.
I continued on the trail for quite a while and wasn’t seeing much so I decided to call a new found herping compatriot Josh aka “Josh_r” you always seem to find stuff when on the phone and this was no exception.
Desert Patchnosed snake
Salvadora hexalepis found crossing the trail.
Found a few cool Inverts.
Habitat
With the good luck I had in the Canyon we decided to road cruise the same night witch turned out to be a good idea. We started seeing adult and fresh baby Atrox all over the road. Man those Western Diamondbacks have some ‘tude.
We also found several Sonoran Desert Toads
Bufo alvarius
Including this monster the size of a cantaloupe, next to a size 13 sandal as a reference. The perspective makes it a little off but believe me he was that big.
Took a detour up to Mount Hopkins to see if anything was moving and came across this Canyon Treefrog
Hyla arenicolor
There were a few DOR Pituophis and a DOR hatchling Glossy snake found that night as well.
We hiked the canyon again the next day. It actually rained off and on the whole time with some intermittent sun breaks so our numbers were a little slim. I heard of some techniques to find Pyros and decided to sit on a pile of boulders and wait for movement. I was there for around thirty minutes without seeing anything until I heard a rustling in the leaves next to the pile. I was beside myself but tried to hold back to see if I could get a decent in-situ pic. I couldn’t wait much longer and wondered if the animal could be diving into a hole so I went over to see what it was. While not a Pyro it was a target of mine, the Madrean Alligator Lizard
Elgaria kingii
We were split up most the time and Bill came across two juvy Black necked Garters
Thamnophis cyrtopsis witch I miserably failed not to get pics of.
We roadcruised the same roads as the night before, the temps were much lower and very few animals were moving we did run across an Atrox and a young Sonoran Gopher snake
The night continued to be slow until we made a pass on what we deemed Baby snake road. On our way back we spotted a tri-banded snake and figured it for a Shovel nose, to our surprise it turned out to be a Sonoran Coral
Micruroides euryxanthus.
The next morning was our last day of herping and we had failed to see a Coachwhip. The Sun broke early and the whiptails were more abundant than the days prior, we had a good chance. While cruising the lowlands we spotted a snake bolt across the road, I was out and running before Bill had a chance to slow down, without my experience running off skateboards I’m sure I would have been road jerky. The snake disappeared…we looked all over and figured it went down a rodent hole. We started to think we were going to have wait it out when I remember all the pics I’ve seen of Coachwhips in trees and suggested we looked up. Sure enough Bill spots it about 10 feet above our heads.
Red Racer
Masticophis/Coluber flagellum piceus
Some thrasher with a cool snake
I had a killer time down there and am already planning a return trip next Spring. I would like to thank Bill Hughes for all his hospitality during the trip, really cool dude that was easy enough to spend countless hours putting up with my never-ending yapping. I would also like to thank Josh for his insight on places to check out. After cutting my teeth down there I plan to go more specific next year and knock some mountane rattlesnakes, Oxybelis and Pyromelana off my list.
Nate
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