Re: [Az-Geocaching] Another snake sighting...

When we lived out in the boonies..aka Mesa 20+ years ago...when Mesa went to Ellsworth and basically stopped...my Dad would pull at least 2-3 rattlers out of our desert yard every summer. And I can remember a couple of gopher snakes as well.
I remember us hiking down in Sabino Canyon and seeing horney toads as well. Have seen in my short lifetime 2 gila monsters in my various Boy Scout affiliated hikes and those are awesome!!!
>From: "Roping The Wind" <arizcowboy@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
>To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
>Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] Another snake sighting...
>Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2005 17:59:57 -0700
>
>Geez. Yall act like snake sightings are rare here in the desert! :)
>LOL  Gosh, I think I see a snake on every other desert hike I take!
>
>Today I saw an interesting looking snake I dont think I have seen
>before. I saw it in the area of EvilFish's Prescott Prize Cache. It
>was fairly long and big. It was black and whitish/yellowish striped
>all the way down. Kinda cute! I was walking along the trail and it
>was sitting right there. I stopped within less than a foot of it to
>obvserve and it just sat there without a care in the world. I
>watched it a moment until it decided our conversation was getting
>boring and it slowly went on it's way! :)  I think it was a Common
>Kingsnake (non venomous).
>
>Most snakes I see, when I am not particularly looking for them, are
>rattlesnakes. They are easy to identify. But if you turn over some
>rocks... there is a good chance you will find lots of non venomous
>snakes out in the desert. I think there is only one venomous, non
>rattler snake in arizona.. that is a coral snake. I cant say I have
>ever seen one though. They are very easily identified
>(black/yellow/orange striped). So if it doesnt have a rattler on it,
>it is likely not venomous.
>
>I saw my first Gila Monster, after living in Arizona nearly 20
>years, just last year. We saw it while out geocaching south of
>Vulture Mine. It was sitting just outside a hole under a rock and my
>friend stepped near it and it backed up under the rock some more. He
>called me back down (of course, I was way ahead up the mountain!)
>and told me what he saw. So I kinda looked into the hole a bit and
>saw it peeking out at me with it's head just inside the hole. My
>first Gila Monster sighting and probably will not be fortunate to
>find another one for a long time. :(
>
>Scott
>Team Ropingthewind
>
>
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