Spring Break 2002

For our spring break trip of 2002, we again headed off to Arizona.  This year, instead of starting in Arizona and finishing the trip in California, we planned on staying in Arizona the whole time.  Well, as they say . . . "the best laid plans of mice and men . . . "  Cheyenne got sick on the way out, and at first we thought it was a severe cold, but she didn't get better and on Tuesday we took her to see a doctor in Blythe, CA . . . diagnosis, strep!  So in order to get her out of the weather, it was off to my good friend Dave Long's in Indio, CA . . . and a couple of days herping southern California.

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Friday, March 15, 2002

We left Arlington on Friday night, and drove through to Van Horn, where we spent the night in one the many really cheap motels there.  Saturday morning, we continued west.  I stopped once on NM 9 east of Columbus, NM, and spotted what I presume was a Uta, but it darted under a rock and disappeared before I could get a good look at it.  Temperatures were really quite cool - a condition that would plague the first couple of days of the trip.

Saturday, March 16, 2002

Stopped at the Safeway in Wilcox to buy my Arizona hunting license, found out that my friend Kenny Wray and his wife were no more than 45 minutes ahead of us.  We figured that there was no way that we would have a problem meeting up with them in the Maricopa Mts to herp that evening.  Remember what I said about "the best laid plans . . . "  We got stuck in traffic in Tucson . . . When we arrived in the Maricopas, Kenny wasn't in the first canyon to the left on the east side of the mountains, nor was he at Butterfield Pass.  Since the road was rougher than I had expected, I felt sure that he hadn't been able to make it to the Pass in his Corolla, but I felt sure that I would find him in the first canyon to the left, like I clearly indicated to him before we left . . . and showed him on the map.  So I went back down that road, and still couldn't find him.  I figured that his wife, Maria (who is pregnant) hadn't wanted to spend the night in the cold, and that they'd gone to get a hotel . . . I expected to see them pull in the next morning sometime, and went up the first canyon to set up camp.  It turned out that Kenny and Maria were in the second canyon to the left . . .

Sunday, March 17, 2002

Sunday, I got up and started herping a few hours after sunrise . . . giving the rocks time to warm up and giving Kenny & Maria time to show.  They hadn't shown by the time the rocks had warmed, so I went collecting without them, hiking the ridges around the camp canyon.  In the morning, I found only numerous Uta (side-blotched lizards) and one Urosaurus (tree lizard).  I talked to the BLM ranger around lunch, and he hadn't seen a white Toyota corolla anywhere (at this point, I think Kenny and Maria were in the Ajo area . . . ).  Later in the afternoon, I hiked the ridge on the south side of the canyon, found more Uta, one baby chuckwalla, and one probable western banded gecko.  Even though I found no snakes, I certainly enjoyed the scenery!

Monday, March 18, 2002

Marla and I packed up early this morning, and decided to head down to Why and Organ Pipe National Monument.  Kenny had mentioned that he thought he'd herp around Why, and I hoped to cross his path there (He was already headed for the Kofas, that day, hoping to meet up with me.  Don't know how he got his days crossed up, as I told him that I wouldn't get to the Kofas until late Monday . . .).  Anyway, I arrived at the Gunsight Hills south of Why and turned a few rocks, finding Uta and one Coleonyx.  Turned some junk at the Gunsight Wash and added a few more Uta and a baby Sceloporus magister, as well as two Arizona Hairy Scorpions.  It was actually quite cool today, and continued to get cooler, so we decided to forgo herping and head down into the Monument to sight see.  Drove the Ajo Loop Road . . . it got cold and started raining about half way around the loop!  But we took pictures and saw some great scenery.

After we left the Monument, we headed west towards the Kofas.  Stopped at Dateland, with faint hopes of findind Fringe-toed Lizards - faint hope because it was only in the high 60's.  Did see (guess what?) some more Uta.  We also saw Wray-tracks . . . footprints about the right size for Kenny and Maria Wray.  With this evidence at hand, we felt for sure we'd catch up to them in the Kofas!

Arrived in the Kofas at sundown . . . no Wrays!  I later learned that he'd left and headed back to Ajo!  We never did meet up with him!  Oh well . . .

Castle Dome Mountains from highway

Tuesday, March 19, 2002

It was really cold and windy this morning . . . I got up early and hiked up into Palm Canyon of the Kofa Mountains, hoping to see or hear Bighorn Sheep.  Marla took Cheyenne into Quartzite to get out of the cold, and to find a doctor.  No doctor there would see children!  I took pictures of the palms in the canyon, both in the morning and at noon.  After lunch, we decided to do what we had to do to find Cheyenne a doctor, and ended up going into Blythe.  Like I mentioned earlier, she was diagnosed with strep, and we decided to go on into Indio.  However, since Dave wouldn't get home from work until around 6 pm, we decided it wouldn't hurt do go ahead and drive back into Kofa Queen Canyon for a little sight seeing and some herping.  Found (of course) several Uta and one Xantusia vigilis (Desert Night Lizard).  Of course, the Kofas are beautiful mountains, and even though we found no herps to photograph (the night lizard was not caught), we had a great time and really enjoyed the mountains and the desert landscape.  We did make a couple of passes through the Dome Rocks on the gas line road, but I guess it hadn't been warm enough during to day to bring boas out, because we found no snakes.

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

For some reason, I decided that herping board spots in Riverside county would yield me more snakes than herping in the high desert would.  I should have went to Stoddard or Landers!  CA coastal areas were incredibly dry and very dusty, although some of the higher elevations (~3000 feet) had some moisture remaining from a rain on Monday.  I also went on up to the San Jacintos, to try a low elevation spot (~4000 feet) for zonata, but found only a few lizards. 

I did find a few herps flipping boards . . . one gophersnake, and one red diamondback that I think I've found 3 years running . . . twice under the same board, coiled in the same place, even in a pretty similar position.  I also managed to noose and finally get excellent photos of a Granite Spiny!  I also saw (guess what?) many Uta, several Sceloporus occidentalis, 2 Cnemidophorus tigris, and a few western skinks.

Thursday, March 21, 2002

After a dry day of herping, I decided that I might as well get skunked looking under moist rocks surrounded by snow as looking under dry rocks in the desert, so I went up into the San Diego county mountains in search of tricolored photographic subjects.  I found one Alligator Lizard under a board along the roadside, then went on up into the mountains.  Even though the first range I went into was lower elevation, it actually had more snow on it than the higher elevation range, because it was sheltered.  In the lower elevation range, I found only a few skinks and western fence lizards.  In the higher range, I found a ridge line along the edge of the timber that was relatively free of snow.  Carefully looking under rocks here revealed three juvenile snakes:  1 gopher snake, 1 baby zonata, and 1 whipsnake.  I also found the standard lizards:  western skinks, western fence lizards, and southern sagebrush lizards.  Surprisingly, I didn't see a single Ensatina.

Friday, March 22, 2002

On Friday, we decided that Cheyenne was well enough to travel, so we headed back east for the Harcuvar Mountains of western Arizona.  On the way over, we spotted a Desert Bighorn Ram in the median of I-10 in the Dome Rock mountains.  We hooked U-turn across the median on an emergency vehicle turn around, and drove back for another look.  Awesome!

We turned off for the Harcuvars at Aguila, and after several miles down a rough wash, then up a really rough road in a Canyon, we made it to the ridge that is the Harcuvar Mountains.  Wow, what a neat mountain range!  Its all grassy with scattered rock outcrops and chaparral, and looks great for herping.  On the drive in, we found a striped whipsnake (Masticophis taeniatus).  Of course, we also saw a lot of Uta!  We stopped near the radio towers, and began looking under rocks.  Marla quickly flipped a baby sonoran gopher snake.  We decided then that we'd go back to the spot we'd picked for camp, set up, and then go herping.

Well, we were unsuccessful in finding a rosy boa, but we did find a couple of cool herps.  Marla flipped a rock that had an adult Gilbert's skink under it, although she wasn't able to catch it, and I found a young Blacktail and a young Speckled Rattlesnake.  We also found a few Urosaurus.

Saturday/Sunday, March 23/24, 2002

We got up and herped around for a couple of hours before we had to head home.  We did find some more Uta and Urosaurus.  We really liked this mountain range, and plan on coming back again!

Driving home, we again got stuck in traffic, this time near Picacho.  We spent the night in Van Horn, Texas, and drove into Alpine to pick up our mouse order from the Mouse Factory on Sunday morning.  Arrived home at about 7 pm.