Cruising started at sunset, and we made our way to higher elevation to seek out the areas that might cool down first. 2 hours in, and nothing. Disheartened, we got off that road and en route to another spot, we got target number 1, and a locality lifer for us, this gorgeous adult male Northern three-lined boa.




Kyle being from Riverside county often sees dozens of rosys a year, but one down in the desert was pretty new to both of us. This was the first rosy of the year for me, so I was even more excited. We both experienced the impossible nature of these snakes however as the heat and determined nature of this snake made full body shots literally impossible. Somewhere behind most of my shots is a hand holding the snake somewhat in place, or else it would have shot off into the rocks. We moved on.
2 hours later and as happy as we were, we were both confused and worried about the lack of snakes. What we refer to as the 'flatland three" (shovel nosed, glossy, and leaf nosed) which usually are everywhere and the most common snakes were no where to be seen, even odder given the 7 shovel nosed, 2 glossies, and 2 leaf nosed I had seen a couple nights before on a trip with my dad. We debated going to camp, and both of us were tired from about 6-7 hours of almost constant driving by this point, but at the last minute we decided to do one last pass on the road where we saw the rosy. As we came around a bend, an suv was parked in the road and 2 figures were out shining lights at a rocky road cut. Knowing this could be something cool, we stopped and asked what they had. To our surprise, these young herpers had just cruised a beautiful speckled rattlesnake. Kyle and I looked at each other excitedly, and asked if we could take some pictures, and luckily for us, their response was" Of course!"
Funny enough these two boys (Huck and Jaden, you know who you are






The boys expressed how much they wanted to see a Lichanura and I felt a little bad knowing we had seen one earlier, but they did manage to see a Tantilla earlier which are definitely cool little snakes. By this time it was well past midnight and the boys needed to get back to LA that night with their mom driving. Definitely cool to see a mom herper out! We said our goodbyes and shot a little bit more as their tail lights disappeared.
After our shooting and drive back to our campsite, we were both exhausted and for the sake of both comfort and safety, we turned in at around 2 am. The next morning happy with our targets off the list yet still confused by the lack of other snakes and only a few geckos we enjoyed a lazy breakfast and a daytime dunes cruise before heading back.
I know this post probably wasn't the most exciting but for me at least it was one of the best trips I have had down there. It's always fun to meet new people too. I'll leave you with this photo of the new majestic herping steed "in situ."

Next target for us is Panamint rattlesnakes in SB county so we'll see how that goes. Happy herping!
-Jeremy