9-03-16

Trip Details

Location: Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Weather: Breezy, high of 96

Herpers: Dāv Kaufman, Jeff LeClere and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch

We arrived in Mexico without any major issues and with high hopes for the trip. We picked up our rental car, headed to the Wal-Mart to grab supplies and then settled into our hotel for the afternoon. The weather was very warm, even for Mexico. We set a record high for the day at 96 degrees. We ate our first tacos and after dark we headed out to cruise some local roads.

We started off pretty early with a young Baja California Rattlesnake (Crotalus enyo)

The guys taking photos...

Later we got a larger Baja California Rattlesnake. It had a very odd rattle as you can see in the photo.

We cruised a road a bit farther north and found this Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus mitchelli)

We probably should have photographed it against a slightly more contrasty background...

It was a miracle that we got it, as we drove over the top of it and had to turn around. A second vehicle straddled it, which is very uncommon in Mexico, where most people hit snakes on purpose.

That was it for the night. I thought it was odd that we only saw rattlesnakes. I was sure that would change as the days went on.