9-6-15

Trip Details

Location: Near San Jose Del Cabo and Miraflores, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Weather: 90 degrees, very humid and some rain.

Herpers: Shawn Vought, Jason Nelson, Joe Ehrenberger, Matt Cage, Mike Pingleton, Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch

Day two of the trip and we headed out to Miraflores to visit a boulder strewn river where snakes could be found even during the heat of the day. This area was high enough in the mountains that it was somewhat cool, at least compared to San Jose Del Cabo where we were staying.

Mike and I arrived a little ahead of the rest and we got out of the car to photograph some large moths that were sitting on the walls of area where we had parked.

I spotted a Baja Brush Lizard (Urosaurus nigricaudus) up high on a power pole.

Soon everyone else came and we headed down the trail toward the river.

About halfway down the trail, Matt spotted a snake barely poking out of the undergrowth. He made a quick grab and ended up with a Baja California Striped Whipsnake (Masticophis aurigulus).

It was a great spot and a great catch. The snake was a bit over three feet in length. It was an awesome find.

We got down to the river and watched the lizards crawl across the rocks and on the sand.

This is a Zebra-Tailed Lizard (Callisaurus draconoides).

They were very common here. This is a San Lucan Banded Rock Lizard (Petrosaurus thalassinus), which was also common here.

There was a large group of swallow tail butterflys in one damp area of sand.

Our main target here was the Cape Garter Snake (Thamnophis validus) and we ended up finding a number of juveniles.

They are very dark snakes and are very difficult to photograph. That’s my excuse for that terrible picture anyway. There are no true watersnakes in this area so this garter snake fills that niche. It swims around and catches frogs and fish just like the watersnakes do back home.

This being a Sunday, there were a lot of people here. This area is used by the locals as a spot to cool off in the pools of the river. There was even a large group baptism on the beach.

After we finished up we drove back to town and ended up in Cabo San Lucas.

A quick stop at the car rental office turned up this Peninsular Spinytail Iguana (Ctenosaura hemilopha), high in a tree.

We had lunch at another taco stand and made an attempt to go to a beach to find lizards. The water was too rough to hire a boat, and much of the beach had washed away so we couldn’t walk there. We scrapped the plan and headed back to the hotel for a bit of time in the pool and to plot our next day.

It wasn’t long though before it was time to head out to cruise.

Mike and I cruised some of the same roads we had the night before, and with the higher heat we had a much better night.

Mike and I found this large Baja California Rattlesnake (Crotalus enyo) early in the night.

It was probably the largest one we would see during the trip. It was nearly three feet long.

Here is a smaller one that someone else turned up.

Mike and I also got the only live Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula) that was found on the road during the entire trip. It was a juvenile sporting the Cape coloration pattern, with very dark and irregular markings.

Someone in one of the other cars found this Nightsnake (Hysiglena torquata)

It was about ten inches long.

Another snake I really wanted to see on this trip was a Mexican Rosy Boa (Lichanura trivigata) and we found one late in the evening.

It was an awesome experience seeing it on the road. It was so cool seeing such a staple of the pet trade out crawling around doing its thing. It was a perfect little juvenile, about a foot in length.

Mike and I also turned up our first Cape Gopher Snake (Pituophis c. vertabralis) of the trip so I snapped some shots of it.

It was a fourteen inch long juvenile just like the one that was found the night before.

Shawn and Jason found this Sand Snake (Chilomeniscus stramineus).

The ones to the north are banded and are a lot prettier, but it was still a cool little snake to see. It wasn't more than eight inches long.

Mike and I got our first Lyre Snake (Trimorphodon biscutatus).

They are really cool little snakes. I really liked the big eyes. This guy was about fourteen inches long.

That wrapped up a really cool day at the river and a fun night of cruising.