Desert Wildlife

Today Bill and I went for a 2.99 mile hike. (Had we made a loop around his truck it would have made 3.0 miles.) My leg did not go numb. It was extra-ordinary! Then we saw an amazing gigantic lizard. I said, "Look at that lizard!"because it was a strange gigantic lizard on steroids iguana looking thing. Bill said it was a chuckwalla and he could take us down in instant and so if he started to run so should I. Lucky for us, Bill's often full of shit and the chuckwalla did some push ups and then scurried into a rock. I did not have my camera, so here is another picture of the chuckwalla lizard. The picture doesn't do justice to his size. He was as big as a squirrel!

The chuckwalla lizard should not be confused with the chukar bird who also supposedly lives in the desert. I don't know anything about chukar except that one time Josh went on a hunting expedition for chukar and I had the image in my head of a little tweety- finch looking bird with huge eyes and Josh holding a glock sideways at him. It's one of my favorite completely made up images and still makes me laugh when I think about it. Turns out chukars are kinda weird looking.


We did not see any snakes. This is good because I hate snakes. I hate all types of snakes. Good snakes, non-poisonous snakes, water snakes, baby snakes, dead snakes, snake eggs and snake gumbo. When I see a snake I use what Bill calls my sonic weapon. Two weeks ago we were riding and nobody told me there was a snake and I screamed so loud Bill heard me almost a half a mile back. Turns out that particular snake had been run over by a previous cyclist and was near dead. I did not care and was upset that no one noticed the snake and didn't say, Bethany-snake, so I would know ahead of time. I'm not a diva when I am on the bike, but I do request prior notification for all snakes.

There are these types of snakes in the Mojave Desert:

Mojave Green: A very poisonous snake. He is green. I spend much of my bike rides and hikes listening for him and getting ready to scream should I need to. They sun in the morning and afternoons in the summer. If you go later in the morning you have less of a chance of seeing them, but I have seen lots of Mojave Greens. One time Bill almost stepped on one and I screamed. One time I nearly ran over one. I screamed. One time I heard one and I screamed.
Every other snakes: Some snakes are not poisonous and the bike guys like to tell me that I don't have to be afraid of these types of snakes, but I don't care. A snake is a snake is a snake.

I think one time Josh and I saw this snake.

We were hike-a-biking out at Sycamore Rocks in a canyon and all the sudden we saw the biggest snake I have ever seen in my life even in a zoo. He was at least 5 feet long and as fat as my forearm. I screamed. Josh screamed. We didn't know how we were going to get out of the canyon because he was in our way. Then I said, well at least he's not rattling and then he started to rattle. I screamed and jumped back and broke a nail. He scuttled under a rock and we high tailed it out of there. Then we saw another two other snakes on the way out, so when Josh drove home, I put my feet up on the dash in case one tried to jump in the car. I didn't want to take any chances.