Another gopher snake

This time I was in El Malpais National Monument in NM. Kristi and I took our moms to Santa Fe this weekend. I saw some odd paint marks on the pavement and was looking at them as I drove by. At the last second, I gasped and swerved to avoid this live extension of the paint marks! Thank god I didn't hit him! A handsome gopher snake. He bit me once before I grabbed him. Kristi's mom saw him bite me, and then when I picked him up and brought him near the car for Kristi to take pictures, she yelled, "Don't put his head near me!" He was fine once in the hand, though. I thought this guy had really pretty color. Our other great "find" of the day was a nice male elk. These aren't the greatest pics--our camera isn't very good and by this time he was kind of far away--but they do show his antlers reasonably well.

Excellent photos of a very nice looking snake !

Wow, that gopher snake's really cool-- a little nicer than the last one. I would have been really excited to spot that elk too. :cheers:

Agreed. He was definitely prettier than the last one! The elk was the first I've seen with a big rack, so that was a lot of fun for me!

Hey, nice findings Is this El Malpais national monument near santa fe? I go up there frequently and find some beautifull gophers, bulls and of course elk.
And that snake tattoo, I likey! do you have better pics of it? Usually snake tattoos always look cheesy.

krazyblurtz said:

Hey, nice findings Is this El Malpais national monument near santa fe? I go up there frequently and find some beautifull gophers, bulls and of course elk.
And that snake tattoo, I likey! do you have better pics of it? Usually snake tattoos always look cheesy.

Click to expand...

That's the one. Beautiful place!
Thanks for the compliment on my tattoo. There are better pics of my herp tattoos in the long tattoo thread in the general discussion forum. There are lots of others' herp tattoos as well. Just do an advanced search for tattoo and desertanimal. That'll be the easiest way to see better pics.