AZ Day 1

Get in and immediately start by hiking in a creek bed. First snake and lifer of the trip as we see a few black neck garters.

Get out of the creek and begin cruising at dark. It is a little slow. Miss a black rattlesnake crossing the road as reported by another driver. First cruise spotted by us is a Sonoran Gophersnake!

Sonoran Sidewinder hiked up in lowland habitat early in the morning on the way back to the Airbnb

AZ Day 2

Slow start to the day after the previous late night. Walking around the Airbnb in the heat of our day yielded a snake on the crawl. A big bend patch nose!

Headed out to our cruising and hiking sight for the day we cruised our fourth Black-neck garter on the way in. As night fell we split to hike the canyon and cruise at the same time.

As one of the hikers, we saw nothing. When I got back to the car I was told I missed a mohave which dampened my mood. But not for long. They had just cruised a green ratsnake which they then showed us.

It was incredible to see the olive green coloration and how there were some anatomical differences from its eastern counterparts. Excited with checking off one big target we changed locations for the remainder of the night. Our luck continued as we cruised another sonoran gopher and a black tail rattlesnake.

Interesting how every scale is a single color.

AZ Day 3

One of our slowest days herp wise throughout the trip. We try a couple different places and get skunked during the day. As we enter our cruising location we see a pair of black neck garters and another gopher. Nothing during the cruising window and decide to move to a different location. On our way there we see a long nose on the shoulder of a BUSY multilane road. It was relocated.

Continuing along we see our first western diamondback which is shocking as they should be one of our most common finds in this area.

Calm little guy, escorted off the road before we continued along.

AZ Day 4

Out early to start our grind for more rattlesnakes. We were rewarded with a quick mohave crossing the road on our way to location. Unfortunately too quick for me and no photos were taken.

Thankfully rattlesnakes were abundent. Our next was a banded rock rattlesnake.

We saw a few more but didn’t want to bother them much so I only took photos of one more.

Moving locations we drove by a pink coachwhip but by the time we stopped it was already long gone from where we spotted it.

At the new location we were instantly rewarded with a tiny coral on the crawl.

Not long after we saw a Tiger Rattlesnake.

The remainder of the night yielded another diamondback and long nose.

AZ Day 5

Another of our slower days. Struck out on a location and saw some DORs. In the morning we had a crazy encounter of a barred tiger salamander find poking its head out of a hole.

The night was interesting as we came across another gophersnake and a dead knoblochi. The highlight was cruising a banded rock rattlesnake which is random.

AZ Day 6

One last full day to really find stuff so we got out early. Another cruise to our first location. This time a mountain patchnose.

At location we scoured for some more rattlesnakes. Came across more Banded Rock Rattlesnakes than I could count (maybe 7?). No photos taken. Our target for the day was a ridge nose and it wasn’t looking good. Defeated we trudged back to the car before one member of our party saw a rock outcrop on a hill and had to check one last location. What a way to find your first Ridge nose.

It is a beautiful snake. Took a few quick photos and left it alone.

As our last full day we were going to make the most of it so we changed locations. Cruised 2 diamondbacks and 3 gophers at the new location. The prize snake from this location came by chance. I had to use the restroom and was abandoned at the restroom for 30 minutes so I began poking around. Stumbled upon our second sonoran coral of the trip.

On our way back in we found our last lifer of the trip, a checkered gartersnake!

We had been searching for black kingsnakes all night and found two DORs which was devastating. Saw a long nose as well.

AZ Day 7

On the true final day we ran all over the state attempting a few more targets and only stumbled upon andother Black neck garter. Always excited to see a snake and don’t want to discount avoiding the skunk but a little disappointing for sure. Off to the airport, see ya later AZ!

Totals:
Banded Rock Rattlesnake (11)
Black-necked Gartersnake (7)
Sonoran Gophersnake (7)
Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (4)
Long-nosed Snake (3)
Sonoran Coral Snake (2)
Mountain Patch-nosed Snake
Checkered Gartersnake
Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake
Tiger Rattlesnake
Big Bend Patch-nosed Snake
Sonoran Sidewinder
Green Ratsnake
Black Tail Rattlesnake
Mohave Rattlesnake

Notable DORs: dead knoblochi, 6+ ft gopher, and 2 dead mexican black kingsnakes

Species Seen: 15
Lifers Seen: 12
43 snakes seen in a week is nothing to scoff at!