Main Reptile Site

(The list below will hopefully evolve into a long list of webpages devoted to photo safaris in the field. I just got my digital camera in 2002 and I have a job and a family so it may take a while for this list to grow.)

Herp Trips (click on the links below):

I need to begin by clearing up some terminology: 'herpetology' is the study of reptiles and amphibians, so people that keep reptiles and amphibians frequently refer to them as 'herps'. The act of looking for reptiles and amphibians in the wild is commonly called 'herping'. Got it? So I'm actually going to talk about some of my experiences herping.

Growing up in Fairfax, Virginia I used to go herping almost daily just to get out and be away on my own. I learned early on that you could find quite a lot of neat animals just by lifting up pieces of wood and logs and looking underneath. I lived in an area that had some old houses (Civil war era) and there were out buildings and such that were falling apart over the years. All of these were in the thick woods that surrounded my neighborhood. I could go two blocks in any direction and be in prime herping territory!

This is me at age 9 with a pair of eastern box turtles that I kept in the wooded pen pictured behind me. One summer while I was digging around in their pen I found a clutch of eggs. I incubated them inside and had two hatchlings.

Most of the animals that I saw back then were salamanders, eastern box turtles, and ring-neck snakes. In fact, the first snakes that I ever owned were a pair of ring-necks that I found together under the same piece of wood. I got them home and put them in an aquarium and put about 2" of dirt in the bottom. Then I caught a ton of worms and put them in the dirt (for food, I guess). One day I could only find one of the snakes and learned a hard lesson about cannibalism!

When I was down at an area that my friends and I called "the swamp", we would see things that were a little more exotic. Painted turtles, red-spotted newts, and water snakes came into the picture. Besides the eastern kingsnake that I caught down there, one of my other memorable days at the swamp came one summer day when I was with some friends looking for newts. We would go down to this one area and take off our shoes and wade around in the water looking for the newts floating near the surface.

On one of our trips back East, my wife put up with an afternoon of herping out in western Virginia. This was near Thompsons WMA.

As we were walking along like this in about 18" of water I stepped on a strange rock. It was strange because once I stepped down on it it moved! It was bigger than my foot but I reached down and lifted it up to find that it was a snapping turtle! The water was murky but I grabbed it by the sides (fortunately) with the head facing mine as I pulled it up and got a good look down its throat. I had never even seen one before so this was amazing.

I brought it over to the side of the swamp where we had left our shoes and we looked the creature over. It was snapping in the air at us and putting on quite a show. What a trip! After a while, we let him wander back into his muddy home. I never saw a snapper in that place again, but I learned to start wearing old shoes around in the water when I went wading!

While driving around in farm country, we came to a road that had dozens of racers streaming across it. I jumped out and grabbed this one just in time for it to reach out and bite my hand. Has anyone ever picked up a racer and not been bitten immediately? I doubt it...

Most of the woods and water around my old neighborhood have turned into more neighborhood by now. It's sad because the woods back there were so thick with life. Now I live in the Rocky Mountain west with it's giant expanses of sage and rock. There aren't the remains of old buildings out here where modern history doesn't go back for more than about 130 years. But the area is still abuzz with life.

This was a trail along the Blue Ridge parkway. No snakes, but who cares?

Near Spanish Fork, Utah is a canyon called Diamond Fork. Before the big water project began in this canyon it was a quick getaway that always made for a beautiful drive. I have heard that it is (was?) prime habitat for the Utah milk snake but I have not been able to confirm that myself. Part of the problem may be that once we get driving and hiking around in there we lose focus on herping and settle for gawking at the scenery. These mountains are fantastic!

The road in Diamond Fork canyon.

I have been trying to teach my three sons about the thrill of herping and at least one of them has taken a keen interest in it. We go driving around looking for snakes in the road on a regular basis, and recently, midway through a week of Crocodile Hunter on TV, my son Travis announced that he wanted to train to be a professional Rattlesnake Hunter. So we jumped up and took off again in search of our elusive prey.

I should add that I have seen rattlesnakes here in Utah but I have never and would never let my children near them. I value my health and life as well as that of my children's way too much to take any risks. But we are picture hounds and will take photos if we get the chance. (Naturally, I have not had my camera any of the times that I have seen rattlesnakes, but I will remedy that soon.)

This is one of the residents of Diamond Fork canyon. And it was one of the calmest garter snakes that I have ever handled.

Most of our trips end up with us capturing great basin gopher snakes, garter snakes, and racers. The gopher snakes are the most enjoyable of the group and we have seen quite a few of them including some that roam the neighborhood that we live in now. These get to be fairly large. I think that the longest one that we have seen was close to the 5 foot mark if not bigger. They are rarely aggressive and don't mind being picked up and handled gently. It's a little different with the racers. :) I give them room if they haven't managed to move quickly away from us on their own.

This is farmland surrounding Utah lake. Mount Timpanogos is off in the distance.

We always release anything that we catch although I would one day like to try breeding gopher snakes in our home. For now, we will concentrate on taking pictures. It has only been recently that I have taken my camera with us so hopefully this page will fill up soon with more photos from the field.

I guess to wrap this up I just hope that I can share with my kids the appreciation that I have for nature and the outdoors even if it is under the auspices of herping. I've always thought that if I could have my dream job it would be to get paid to just walk around outside. (Note: if you know of or are hiring for such a job - let me know. I would be great at it!) Even when we go out and don't see any herps we always enjoy just getting away and getting a better perspective on life and the world around us. I hope you get to experience this too.

My son Travis is showing Dad how to wrangle gopher snakes. He picked up four this day.

Unless otherwise credited, all photographs and text are my property and may not be used without my permission. World maps courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. I don't claim responsibility for the content of any of the websites that I link to.