Sunset Crater Nat'l Park

[Aozora]

I took a family vacation to Flagstaff, AZ over the 4th of July week, and we went to visit this national park. They actually had a lot of rain (for the area) and so flowers were blooming everywhere.

We saw a fence lizard on a post and tried to catch it so we could see its blue belly. In the course of trying to catch it, it jumped onto my roommate's arm to give us a Class-A stinkeye.

Then, at a rest stop, I heard my dad yelling for me. We came running, and he showed us that he'd found a juvenile gopher snake in the bathroom. The first picture is the little guy in situ, wedged under a door. It wasn't a safe place for a little snake to be, so we caught him, relocated him, and released him. He was awesome! He never hissed or musked or flailed, and I'd heard they had a bad reputation for being grouchy. I love his little colubrid face and his eye stripes.

...I want a gopher snake now. :laugh:

 

[hypnoctopus]

Very cool. Did you end up getting to grab the lizard to see the blue belly? They're very bright and they often have orange on their throats as well.

 

[DollysMom]

Thanks for the wonderful pictures. Such a pretty snake, too!

 

[Aozora]

Very cool. Did you end up getting to grab the lizard to see the blue belly? They're very bright and they often have orange on their throats as well.

No, we didn't with this guy. A moment after I took the picture he did a hail-Mary 3-foot jump to the ground and ran his little tail off. We did see other fence lizards in the area bobbing and posturing, so we did see a good glimpse of their orange throats.