Buckeye Herps - A Photographic Gallery of the Reptiles and Amphibians of the State of Ohio

Arizona

June 2007

A trip to the wilds of SE Arizona has been on my wish list for a couple years now. My initial desire had been sparked when reading Carl Kauffeld's accounts of his travels in the area. As I looked more into the natural history of the state, I knew I had to visit. Unfortunately, I was unsure when I would be able to have the time to make the trip, or a companion to enjoy to the experience with. Sometime this winter I realized I would have a week off at the end of my school year. I worked on figuring out the exact dates and then mentioned my idea to Carl when I had all my ducks in a row. He was definitely interested in trying to work something out, and thought he would probably be free. Finally in May we locked ourselves into the trip. Due to schedule constraints, I could only go the last week in June, before the onset of the Arizona monsoons. Herps can be difficult to find at best during this time, and this year was no exception. Southern Arizona was being blasted with hot temperatures, had seen little rain, and the end did not look to be near. We knew we had our work cut out for us, but at Carl later reminded me, we didn't know any better! We hoped the small mountain ranges, collectively referred to as the "Sky Islands", would provide us with chances for success. The cooler high elevation temperatures and the increased possibility of rain filled us with some hope. We did our homework, reading old natural history accounts, articles and talking to others who had been successful in the area. Many thanks to Mike and Chad for some suggestions and answering a few of my questions. My deepest gratitude goes out to Young for his wonderful hospitality, immeasurable amounts of help and excellent companionship in the field. I just hope someday I can find a way to return the favor.

The timing of the trip was funny in that Ohio also had been experiencing a hot, dry spell that is unusual for June. Typically, June is an amazing time for herps around here, but this year it already felt like late July or early August. The day our flight left was refreshingly cool and there had even been some precipitation! When we arrived at the airport we both mentioned the wonderful weather and joked about our fortunes. Maybe we should have stayed home?? I don't think so!

Upon landing were excited to grab our bags, hop in the rental and hit the road. The first herp we saw was a Sonoran Desert Toad. I think we expected to see many more during our travels, and due to our excitement, we passed on photos. That was the only toad of that species we were able to capture for pictures over the next 4 days. What were we thinking?!? We met Young that night, said some quick introductions and hit the nearby roads. Nothing was really moving, but we turned up another Sonoran Desert Toad or two (again no pictures?!?) and a Red Spotted Toad. We didn't pass on pictures for this guy, and I am thankful for that.

Red-spotted Toad Bufo punctatus

We rose early on Sat morning and set out for the SE. Of course on the way out of Tuscon we had to get some supplies and our hunting permits. Figuring there would be no traffic early on a weekend morning we were greatly dissapointed to get stuck in some nasty construction. Here we were, just trying to get out in the wilds, and we were wasting precious morning hours sitting in a car in downtown Tuscon! Some how we stayed patient - I don't remember too much complaining and we made it to our destination just a little later than planned. Boy, it sure was hot.

The spot was some very interesting country, and the promise of neat wildlife, seemed to be just around every corner. The first rock I flipped had a massive scelopendra. I thought it was pretty cool, but again, thinking we would see many more I opted to let it escape. That was the only creature I found under a rock the whole trip. Carl also flipped his only creature under a rock at that site as well. It was a very speedy Sonoran Spotted Whiptail. My pictures from afar turned out pretty shoddy unfortunately. We were able to see another on our hike out. I asked Carl for the noose, and was able to quickly catch my very first whiptail! I admit some cheating coming up. We could only restrain it with a noose, and I very jokingly at the time mentioned we could just photoshop that out after. Well, having never tried this feat before, and being urged on by some recent photoshop projects I had been playing around with, I decided to see what kind of results I could manage. Needless to say, I cheated, but I am pleased with the outcome. Not quite as bad as people posing DORs for books and not mentioning the snake is actually dead...

Sonoran Spotted Whiptail Aspidoscelis sonorae

Young suggested another spot nearby that might have a bit more water this time of the year. We of course happily obliged to check it out! Right after we arrived, clouds seemed to roll in out of nowhere, and the thunder was abooming. It only rained for about 20 minutes, but it was decent, and I was hopeful for our chances immediately after. The temps seemed to drop ~15 degrees... Our first find was this neat little Tree Lizard. If I am not mistaken, it was the only one we saw all trip.

Ornate Tree Lizard Urosaurus ornatus

A little bit later, I split off from Young and Carl to hike up a dry creek bed, while they scouted out a little pond. While they checked out invasive Bullfrogs, I happened to hear a slither and a quiet rattle as this little guy saw me and quickly fled... OH SWEET SUCCESS! Carl and I's first Rock Rattlesnake.

Rock Rattlesnake Crotalus lepidus

On the flight out, Carl and I had discussed many of the species we hoped to be able to observe. We didn't really have any huge goals or aspirations. We just wanted to see as much as possible and enjoy the good times. Of course we tried to put ourselves in the best places for the highest chance of success with a wide variety of species. We figured if we missed out on snakes, there were always lizards or vice versa. The three montane rattlesnakes were up on the unofficial list, but we didn't think we had much chance this time of the year. I think we both decided we would be pleased, and lucky to see one of the three species. We figured we would see plenty of gophersnakes, kings, whipsnakes, glossies, etc to keep us busy and more than happy. To be quite honest, any of those species would have been a lifer for me, and I would have been just as happy. As lady luck would have it though... our first snake of the trip turned out to be on of the coveted rattlesnakes. I could help but compare my feelings now to the excitement I could feel in Karl Kauffeld's words when he first found his lepidus...

We hiked for a bunch longer without much success. We saw a few Yarrow's spiny lizards, but I will save some pics of them for later. After feeling a bit lost and turned around, we returned back to a dry creek bed that earlier we had thought was the "wrong way" and started our hike back to the car. I have to admit, I was feeling done. It was a good feeling though. We had some success. The weather had cooperated. I was returning to the car a happy man. We all spoke of the beauty of the country, the luck of the weather, and the wonderful cool temps. Suddenly, Carl yells "WILLARDI!!" As I ran over to his side, filled with utter excitement, I could not help but feel incredibly privileged. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would get two montane rattlers! That snake was the species we had thought was the best looking of the three, with the rock rattlesnakes being second. The Price's Rattlesnakes we said were obviously the ugly ducklings of the bunch... The snake was gorgeous. It was beyond my wildest dreams. Please forgive me for many pictures!

Willard's Rattlesnake or Arizona Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake Crotalus willardi

I had picked up a wide angle lens for the trip, and was incredibly excited to capture the snake in the habitat is was found.

More habitat...

We searched hard the rest of the hike out but were not to see anything else.

The intrepid hunters...

We parted ways with Young on the way out when I must have unsuccessfully swerved from some rocks. Poor driving on my part... First I noticed a random warning light up on the dash. I asked Carl what he thought it meant, while I thought to myself it looks like a very poor representation of a flat tire. The car seemed to be driving fine though. We checked the dash, but no manual was to be found. About a minute later I noticed a bit more pull and a weird sound. Pulling over, my fears were realized.

Flat Tire

Carl and I enjoyed our success, and a beer as we took our time putting on the spare. We found the manual in the process, hidden in the back of the car. Real help it was to us there...

We set out on the long drive to another part of the state. We tried cruising a famous road that evening but really couldn't keep our eyes open. There was nothing on the road to motivate us either way. We pulled into the trailhead for our hike the next morning late that night, shared a couple beers, some pasta salad and called it a night. Carl was shocked to find I had risen before him a day or two later when I mentioned I had taken this shot. I had opted for sleeping the car for reasons due to sleeping bag problems. Basically, I bought an expensive, small bag, that I was too tall for. I decided to return it after bringing it along, and had no means of sleeping under the stars.

Our hike that morning was through some very pretty country. We rose early, and really saw nothing at all but a few whiptails and some unIded anurans on the way in. There was a trickle or so of water here every now and then and we were hopeful to find animals nearby. To our surprise, I spotted this hopping through the middle of a a very dry rock bottom creek. I never guess we would see these down in Arizona.

Great Plains Narrow-mouthed Toad Gastrophryne olivacea

We saw some Clark's Spiny Lizards we were never able to photograph and on the way back out the canyon we spotted a Canyon treefrog hopping through the dry creek, in the middle of the blazing sun. We moved it to shade for pics, but the bastard escaped under a rock - I know poor form on our parts...

Back near the start of the hike, Carl mentioned a whiptail that was running along the trail in front of us. I wasn't too impressed, there was work to be done ya know, and so I stopped to check out a pool of water near the trail. It looked great but nothing seemed to hanging around. Really starting to feel dejected I turned around. Carl had stopped to wait for me and was standing a few feet away on the trail. I quickly noticed the snake at his feet and thought to myself why the hell he hasn't said anything. I noticed his eyes were in the trees, taking in the scenery. After some heated hooping and hollering I snapped this quick picture. The snake was our main target for this particular hike, and I have to say I never thought we would find one!

Here is some camo at it's best... Carl and our target relying on his stick shtick.

Brown Vinesnake Oxybelis aeneus

This thing rocked and was an amazing photo subject. It's behaviors were nothing like I expected.

Some new lizards decided to show up in the midday sun on our way out. We had some fun with these Elegant Earless Lizards.

Elegant Earless Lizards Holbrookia elegans

Our last herp of the spot, were a couple Chiricahua Leopard frogs that I obtained horrible poor pictures of.

Some scenery from the hike.

And from the road on out.

That night we headed to a different mountain range, and spent the afternoon hiking a very nice trail, without any luck, whatsoever. It was an amazing place, but by far our slowest hike. I did find a fairly large, shed skin, of a unicolor animal with smooth scales at some decently high elevations. Any ideas??

Here is a view from the hike, near the end of the day.

And one from earlier, from a completely different perspective, much earlier in the afternoon.

That night, we road cruised our first herp near our campsite. We were both excited to see this.

Western Lyresnake Trimorphodon biscutatus

We saw a second one a few minutes later.

And this cool tarantula

Much roadcruising later, and miles away from the lyres, we saw one of our very top targets. The sight of this beast lumbering across the road sent my blood pumping so fast, and I really don't remember much of the quick dash to grab some fast pictures before the animal made his way off the road. Although we were careful to only take pictures and let it go about it's business, I couldn't help but look around waiting for the LE to come flying out of the bushes. Evidently, LE, and all the other herpers, stay home during the heat of the drought.

Gila Monster Heloderma suspectum

Soon after we spotted a heartbreaker on the side of the road. The telltale shape of a horned lizard was sitting on the shoulder. Our only horned lizard of the trip, had unfortunately been hit earlier in the night. Hundreds of victorious ants were crawling all over it, exacting their revenge for battles lost.

We retired late that night, exhausted but thrilled to have seen some stuff roadcruising. The roads had been totally empty the two nights before...

In the morning, we rose early with the sun and enjoyed the cooler high elevation air. We brushed our teeth and started to pack things up. I found a shady spot on the other side of camp to try and photograph the first lyre we had held onto from the night before. It had literally been found on the road right were our campsite was, so it was going to be easy to let go where it was found. As I prepared a little photo studio, I looked up to see a bear cub saunter into our camp. I mentioned it to Carl and we both watched, very perplexed by the unusual behavior.

He was sniffing the area where I spit my toothpaste out in this picture. I packed up quickly and joined Carl at the car to make good our escape. Not after we took pictures for 10 minutes or so, from a distance of ~15 feet.

The next morning, we still had a major item to cross off of our agenda. The past day we operated on the spare tire. Luckily, it was a full size tire, but both of us were a little uneasy about driving the back roads, miles from civilization, without a spare. We had a long drive ahead of us to get to our next destination, so pulled off the highway at a nearby town. Luck was with us again, as the local tire shop was able to patch up our tire for about $15. The luck part of things was he took care of us right away and we were out of there in about 45 minutes. We headed to a different mountain range the rest of the morning, and broke our trend so far - a hike at dawn, drive, hike late afternoon/dusk, roadcruise.

On the way we saw some lizards running across a dirt road and we stopped to scope the area out a little. We soon spotted Tiger Whiptails, Lesser Earless Lizards and some Greater Earless Lizards. It was a nice little stop, and break to our long travel. We also spotted this interesting, very dead kingsnake. Most of the pictures of kings I see are of interesting intergrades, and rarely have I noticed nice black animals. Would have been nice to see this guy alive...

Our hike that afternoon was fairly high elevation, in a nice rugged area. We spent time on some well known trails, although we really didn't see much other than discarded trash and clothes from immigrants. A good way back on the trail, I spotted a lepidus laying across the trail right in front of a rocky area. I don't think I said anything, but just stopped abruptly. Carl sounded a bit excited, and I guess he could just make out a few inches of the pattern from his view behind me. Unfortunately, he couldn't see that the snake was dead. It seemed to have been stepped on by some unknowing hiker. The damage really wasn't much, and I doubt it was killed on purpose, but we will never know I guess. We scoured the rocky area off the trail without any luck. The hike provided us with our first Alligator lizards, but for a couple of different reasons they both escaped without pictures. More poor form on our part... We amused ourselves taking in the wonderful country, the numerous Yarrow's Spiny lizards and imaging the abundant wildlife we may be seeing if there had been some rain. We did happen to see one of the first permanent water features of the trip.

A very cool, refreshing spring.

A nice view from a little lookout.

And a couple Yarrows. We had been pretty excited to see this species early in the trip, but were somewhat disappointed with the first couple specimens. After seeing many, many more we did not grow tired of them. We saw plenty with wonderful coloration, and these very personable lizards always made excellent in situ photo subjects.

That night at dusk we drove another good distance to a town to spend the night, and some nearby cruising roads. We had been sleeping on the ground/car the last couple of nights and it was nice to secure a hotel room and a (filthy) shower. The local piece of crap motel was full (although the parking lot was empty??) so we ended up booking a room at the historic Gadsden Hotel in downtown Douglas. With dropped our bags off and quickly set out though hoping to see some species of animals that had so far eluded us. We had a hard time keeping our eyes open and the road was long and slow. We did see our first couple Mojaves of the trip, although it appeared the second one had been clipped on the tail.

Mojave Rattlesnake Crotalus scutalatus

This was a lifer for me, and something I was very excited to see. So please excuse some extra shots/poses.

Back at the Gadsden, we were not bothered by the ghosts, but I felt less clean after my shower... It added character to the trip though, probably was just as nice as the crappy motel we were denied, and I went to bed imaging Karl Kauffeld sleeping in the very room ~70 years ago, up to whatever old-school herpetologists were up to when they retired for the night... Quite the rowdy bunch you know...

We grabbed a nice warm breakfast at the Gadsden and made good on our trip to the last little range we would visit. It was another bit of a drive, but the country was pretty and it was neat to see some of the habitat we were driving through the night before. Hard to believe some of the harder to find species call that habitat home... Remember I am used to looking for a certain little buzztail in the swamps and wet prairies of Ohio.

The last range was as breath taking as the few before it, and we made our way up to the higher elevations enjoying the scenery. We really didn't know where we were going, but we knew what habitat to look for, and found what we thought seemed just about right...

In the shade of the pines, the high elevation temps were extremely pleasant, and a nice change on our last day. Unfortunately, the habitat was vast, the sun was hot, and there was no rain to speak of. We split up and starting searching the rocks. When we met back up 30 or so minutes later we found we had both decided on our own accord that the main talus probably wouldn't be too fruitful. Well I guess it doesn't take a nuclear physicist or future doctor to figure that one out, but we also decided to stay a bit closer realizing if we do see something it will probably quickly be lost in the rock. We searched a good while longer, again sticking to the shady, wooded areas on the outskirts of the talus slides. We saw our friends the Yarrows on the rocks, up to their usual antics. I was starting to feel a bit like we were going to get skunked and stopped to grab some water, while I watched Carl search an area a little above me. I shifted my weight a little and put my foot up on rock, only to hear the tell tale buzzing of something in front of me. I was rewarded with the wonderful site of two Price's Rattlesnakes basking together in the dappled sunlight.

Price's or Twin-spotted Rattlesnake Crotalus pricei in situ

They moved a little when they realized they had been spotted and we managed to get a few more pictures before they returned to the rocky depths under the pine needles.

We had talked some smack about these little guys earlier in the week, but I take it all back.

And on the way back home...

I can't really describe how grateful and just happy to be alive I felt after being able to watch the last of the three small AZ montains crawl into her hole. It wasn't a "well that was cool" thing...

We hiked a bit more, enjoyed an excellent lunch in the shade and made our way back down to some lower elevations. Our hike that afternoon was also very pleasant and we really put some extra effort into turning up a few of the things we had missed so far - blacktail rattlesnakes and pyros. Unfortunately, I spent more time returning rocks back to their original position that I did actually looking for herps. Some dick of a herper had been through here before and really was not respecting the wonderful habitat... Carl and I had flipped a few rocks throughout our travels, but we always placed them back to the best of our abilities and honestly, we really just didn't flip much knowing, and finding how unsuccessful it was in the heat. This guy obviously never got the memo. The real funny thing was most of the rocks were imbedded, small, oddly shaped and honestly just a shitty rock to hope to find something under. We did our best to return things to their natural state and couldn't help but wonder what may have been hiding under some of the better rocks that we returned. This hike was very enjoyable otherwise, and after the mornings success, we really just kinda took in the scenery and enjoyed the weather. More Yarrow's were out, and we of course couldn't help but photograph them.

We saw another new lizard for us, the Striped Plateau Lizard Sceloperus virgatus

And I ended up finding a couple sheds of lepidus in a few various cracks, but we were not to be so lucky.

Cruising that night, we finally found some higher numbers of animals, primarily rattlesnakes. I saw my first live Western Diamondback Rattlesnake - and it only took 4 days of hiking in Az for it to happen! We saw a couple Mojaves that night, a few atrox, missed a unIDed snake and turned up a neat little Checkered Garter Snake.

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake Crotalus atrox

Checkered Gartersnake Thamnophis marcianus

In the end, it was a pretty amazing trip. We missed out on many of the common species, as well as some of the smaller snakes, and those are some wonderful reasons to return. The area is truly wonderful, and I am already looking forward to being able to go back. Even the hikes that didn't produce much, were filled with beautiful terrain, and my friends the Yarrow's Spiny lizards. I wish I had taken more pictures of the mountains, sunsets and habitat, especially the Gadsden Hotel...