Great Basin Gopher Snake

The Great Basin gopher snake is found in the north part of Southern California, all of Nevada and Utah, and portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The gopher snake, below, was found in the White Mountains above Big Pine, California in August 1993 at about 6,500 feet of elevation. I think it is the most colorful gopher snake I've ever seen.

In the Great Basin subspecies of gopher snake, the dorsal blotches near the front of the body are usually black and connected to each other, as in this one. By contrast, the Sonoran gopher snake generally has brown dorsal blotches near the front that are not connected to each other.

It is yellow, or cream colored and has black, brown or reddish brown dorsal blotches. Some have reddish orange in the interspaces between the blotches, like this one.

They are powerful constrictors and are one of the most commonly seen snakes.

They usually have a dark line across the head in front of the eyes and from behind the eye to the angle of the jaw. The closeup of the head below illustrates those dark lines.

The next three pictures illustrate the color variations in this one snake. The first picture is of the front of the body. The dorsal blotches are black and are connected to each other. There are also black, unconnected, horizontal side blotches.

The mid portion of the snake has brown, unconnected, dorsal blotches and brown, unconnected, vertical side blotches.

Finally, the tail has black, unconnected, doral blotches with reddish orange coloring in the interspaces and irregular shaped, unconnected, side blotches.

California Kingsnake

The California kingsnake is a subspecies of the common kingsnake and is found in all but some small portions of California, the southern half of Nevada, a small portion of southern Utah, all of Arizona, except for eastern Arizona, a small piece of southern Oregon, and a ways into Mexico. Hatchlings are about 12 inches long and adults can get to about four feet long. The first time I saw California kingsnakes I saw three in short order. We were with a group of youth on the Havasupai Indian Reservation in northern Arizona staying at the Havasu Campground in early September 1992. The first snake we saw, below, was near Havasu Falls. It was a beautiful glossy black and white which was very distinctive in the green grass near the falls.

All three snakes we found looked very similar, with dark black and white stripes.
The next kingsnake we found was in the Havasu Campground, see below. Each one had a small white dot on the head.

This one had stripes that connected on the underside through the belly, but at least one did not have connecting stripes.

The third kingsnake we found was about a half mile up Havasu Creek from where it empties into the Colorado River. This was my first trip to Havasupai and I've been back about four times and never seen another kingsnake there.

They are widely variable in appearance, although the ones I've seen have been consistently of two types. The northern Arizona version which is very glossy black and white, and the Redlands

area version which has more choclately brown and yellow stripes. Our local snakes do seem to vary in terms of how dark their dark stripes are and they also are not as glossy as the Arizona versions. The kingsnake below was caught in Redlands.

The next kingsnake was captured up Whitewater Canyon and has distinctive yellow bands and three marks on the top of the head.

The next kingsnake was a pet for awhile, named "Tide" after the laundry detergent, because Judy found the snake one evening in the warm sheets she'd taken from the dryer. She initially thought it was a fake plastic snake of the boys and let out a shreik when she realized it was alive.

We've found a number of kingsnakes over the years, from inside our house, to our neighbors yards, to Overcrest Street on the way to Church. I've found them to be voracious eaters, about the complete opposite of the long-nosed snakes I have never been able to get to eat. Here a kingsnake eats an alligator lizard.

This kingsnake is eating a shovel-nosed snake. It got it all the way down and then threw it up.

This kingsnake is eating a glossy snake. The kingsnake is immune to rattlesnake venom and I've seen pictures of several different kingsnakes eating rattlesnakes.

There are California kingsnakes that have stripes and weirdly contorted markings that are very unusual. Here is a link to some pictures. The next picture is of a kingsnake in the canyon behind our home.

The ease with which they eat and their generally mellow nature (although I have seen several that were pretty nasty, attempting to bite) make them popular pets.

In May 2011 I was taking some trash out to our garbage can in the evening and found a good sized king snake

in our driveway, next to our garage door. It was shaking its tail in a fake rattle, like a rattlesnake, something I've seen gopher snakes do before, but not something I recall king snakes doing. 

I kept it for a couple of weeks, took it to our fathers and sons outing and let the little boys hold it, 

then let it go in our yard on a Saturday afternoon. When I let it go, it got in a defensive posture, 

and fake-rattled again, raising its head as if to strike, 

although it never did strike. 

Side-Blotched Lizard

The side-blotched lizard is scattered widely in the west, including all of Southern California, Baja California, most of Nevada, three-fourths of Arizona, large portions of Utah and into Oregon, Washington, Idaho, New Mexico and Texas. A small, often brownish lizard with with a bluish black blotch behind the forelimb. Sometimes the blotch is faint or missing. The ground color is brown, gray or yellowish and blotched, speckled or sometimes unpatterned. Sometimes they have orange or reddish orange on the throat and sides of the belly. The lizard below was photographed in Joshua Tree National Park near the Belle Campground.

A closer view of the back which shows some brownish stripes.

A side-blotched lizard with a very different look. It is the most common lizard in the desert and semi-arrid regions. It can be active all year round in the southern deserts when the temperature is warm. It lives only about a year. It is very variable and there are likely three subspecies in California that will be delineated in the future.

A closer look at the back pattern.

On April 3, 2010, I was with Andrew and Lauren near the Cottonwood entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. The side-blotched lizards were numerous. The first one was photographed at the pullout on the bajada and nature trail near the park entrance.

The second was photographed near the Cottonwood grove of fan palms.

A closeup of the markings on the back.

Great Basin Fence Lizard

The Great Basin fence lizard is a subspecies of the western fence lizard. It is found along the coast and in the lower vegetation belts of the mountains of Southern California up into Santa Barbara County, northeastern California, most of Nevada, except for the southern tip, a portion of western Utah, the eastern two-thirds of Oregon, the southeastern tip of Washington and a large portion of western and southern Idaho. It has keeled and pointed dorsal scales, larger than the sagebrush lizard, but smaller than the spiny lizard. It is black, gray or brown with a blotched pattern. The sides of the belly of the male are blue, they have a blue patch on the throat and some scales on the back become blue or greenish when in the light phase. The female has faint or absent blue markings. The underneath surface of the rear limbs are yellow or orange. The fence lizard below is dark with distinctive greenish blue scales.

A closer view of the scales that are more keeled than on the sagebrush lizard, but less keeled than the spiny lizard.

The fence lizard below we had as a pet in a terrarium for awhile.

Western Sagebrush Lizard

The western sagebrush lizard is found in portions of central (including the Sierras) and northern California and southwestern Oregon. It is very similar to the southern sagebrush lizard that I've already blogged on. The one below was photographed near Shaver Lake in the Sierras. Note the white strips on each side of the back.

A closer view of the back. The scales of this particular lizard are very dull.

Southern Sagebrush Lizard

The southern sagebrush lizard is located in the transverse (San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains) and peninsular ranges (Santa Ana, San Jacinto and Laguna Mountains) of Southern California and a small area of Baja California. It resembles the Great Basin fence lizard but is smaller and the scales are not as keeled. It is gray or brown above and usually has blotches or crossbars and light stripes on the upper sides. It usually has a bar of black on the shoulder. The one below was photographed in Mission Creek Canyon in the San Bernardino Mountains.

A closer view of the back scalses.

Long-Tailed Brush Lizard

The long-tailed brush lizard is found in southeastern Southern California, the southern tip of Nevada and eastern and southeastern Arizona. It has a long, thin tail, up to twice the length of the body, and it has larger keeled scales down the middle of the back. It is grayish, light brown or beige, with dark irregular crossbars down the back. It can quickly change from a dark phase to a light phase, or vice versa, to match its habitat. They are tolerant of high heat and can live in areas with sparse vegetation. I took the photo below of this lizard in Painted Canyon in the Mecca Hills, relatively near the Salton Sea. It is an area of very little vegetation.

The quality of this picture is not good enough to see the enlarged scales on the back, but you can see the dark crossbars.