After the success in the redwoods of Muir woods, I sought out more! I decided to head up north to larger forests with species I have yet to seen.

January 02

The first day started off nice with a handful of oregon ensatinas found almost immediately who offered up some nice opportunities to experiment with my camera settings.

Second encounter was a double flip of juveniles. Was fascinating to see the differences. One harbored a much brighter orange coloration.

The second had some gorgeous yellow with darker blotches interspersed along its tail which gave it a sort of flame decal look.

The next couple hours yielded more Oregon ensatinas and many slender salamanders. I had surprisingly never seen a slender salamander curl up before so I made sure to photograph the occurance.

One of the first targets of the trip! Lucked upon a northwestern mole salamander. This little guy was full of energy and had lots of glare which made it difficult to photograph, thus the picture you see is the best I got and one of the few that allow you to identify it.

A short period of no salamanders allowed us to appreciate some of the other critters in the forest.

Apparently it is normal for banana slugs to have some dark coloration to them.

A brown colored slender who was a long little guy.

Checking the area around a little stream yielded this rough-skinned newt! Fun find after seeing the california newts the other day. Incredibly bright orange on its belly.

Ended the day seeing 14 salamanders: 6 slenders, 6 oregon ensatinas, 1 northwestern salamander, and the rough-skinned newt.

January 03

Started off day two with some slenders and the sudden desire to hike an out and back herping location 7 miles from the parking lot. At the location, we found some more slenders and a couple ensatinas. This poor oregon ensatina had just lost its tail.

The excitement of the day came during the discovery of a painted ensatina!

Having first been struck by the bright orange tail, the blotches were gorgeous and a welcome surprise.

It was a small little guy with clean colors.

With 7 miles to hike back, our final tally on the day was 19 salamanders: 14 slenders, 4 oregon ensatinas, and 1 painted ensatina.

33 salamanders in two days! Sounds like a successful trip to me. Was glad we found our lifer northwestern salamander, rough-skinned newt, and painted ensatina. Have to come back later because there is still much more to see!